Right now, the Irish organic Certification Bodies and the Organic Unit of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are adapting the Irish organic farming and food standards.
A Standards Committee is trying to marry the Irish organic standards with the EU organic standards, whilst retaining differences the Certification Bodies feel are important.
The Irish certification bodies are keen to maintain what they call higher standards, and thus operate to the same regulations as UK certification bodies, including especially the Soil Association.
While the Soil Association actually have a dedicated Equivalence Department to examine Standards from other countries, Irish certification bodies are keen not to differ in any significant way from the UK Certifiers.
While the experts on the Standards Committee are working through the fine print, it is interesting to examine some noteworthy aspects of the EU Regulation, the so-called lower standard [Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007].
The Regulation makes provisions to accommodate operators who direct sell to the consumer. It specifically states that certain controls would be excessive for operators who direct sell:
The introduction states:
�It might in some cases appear disproportionate to apply notification and control requirements to certain types of retail operators, such as those who sell products directly to the final consumer or user.�
And this is repeated and extended in the relevant sections of the Regulation on Controls and Notifications.
The Regulation also makes allowances for the integration of new techniques into the standards:
�The development of organic production should be facilitated further, in particular by fostering the use of new techniques and substances better suited to organic production.�
Elsewhere, it makes references to guarantees of traceability.
Thus, the Regulation could mean that the whole process of producing and authenticating organic food could be revolutionised.
Instead of following a paper trial and inspecting the farmer, all of which is clumsy and implies distrust, the process could take the following route: train and mentor farmers in the new production system, then scientifically test the product afterwards to validate claims.
Through stable isotope testing � essentially testing the elements inside an atom of the food product for consistency - Professor Frank Monaghan of (UCC) has managed to isolate organic from conventional beef in tests done here in Ireland.
What gives more reassurance to the consumer: a properly trained farmer tested by science, or an occasionally inspected farmer with receipts?
What's most impressive about the Regulation, however, is how it encourages member states to adapt to their own very specific circumstances.
The Regulation makes references, for example, to organic farming taking due consideration of local climactic and geographic factors.
It also makes references to building up the gene pool of animals, and to stocking animals that can survive and indeed thrive in the outdoors, on grass, in a mixed enterprise.
While there may always been notions like this in the dusty corners of the Irish Organic Standards, in reality, the organic sector has focused on technically acceptable inputs, whilst backgrounding its principles.
It has aped some of the worst environmental excesses of the conventional sector, in carrying heavy continental animals that require copious amounts of compound feeds and indoor housing for prolonged periods.
Farmers who try to stock suitable breeds for specific purposes face a range of barriers to entry, most notably through finding enough stock to begin to adapt.
The EU Regulation is written to take this into account. It specifically makes reference to bringing in non-organic animals for breeding purposes, in very tightly controlled circumstances.
The current Standards in Ireland are far more proscriptive. Indeed, this breeding stock element of the EU Regulation is being especially resisted by the Certification Bodies, due to what they cite as consumer confidence.
Done properly and carefully, however, this modification could actually improve and increase the organic gene pool of animals, improve environmental performance and help the sector grow to a sustainable level.
How any or all of the above is implemented and integrated into the Organic Standards in Ireland remains to be seen.
However, there is much in this supposedly lower Standard that could significantly aid the organic sector's development in Ireland.
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