New EU Organic Logo

Following an on-line vote by 130,000 people, the new compulsory EU organic logo has been chosen.

From almost 3500 entrants, three were shortlisted and examined to ensure that there were no copyright infringements.

The winning design comprised twelve stars in the shape of a leaf and, according to the EU Commission, �a very straightforward sign containing two clear messages: Nature and Europe�. It was drawn up by German student Dusan Milenkovic, who receives �6000 in prize money.

The identities and nationalities of the three final contenders have not previously been published, to prevent skewing the voting.

The winning design, �Euro-leaf�, gained 63% of the overall vote for his logo.

From 1st July 2010, the organic logo of the EU will be obligatory on all pre-packaged organic products that have been produced in any of the EU Member States and meet the necessary standards.

It will be optional for products imported into the EU. Other private, regional or national logos will be allowed to appear alongside the EU label.

This includes the logos of the Irish Certification bodies and the UK's quite familiar Soil Association logo.

Importantly for food businesses, there will be an 18 month period of grace to use up existing stock of labels.

However new products will face a challenging time getting the logo integrated into their product packaging.

"I'm delighted that we now have a fresh EU organic food logo," said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, who first proposed the competition to select the logo.

"This exercise has raised the profile of organic food and we now have a logo which everyone will be able to identify with. It's a nice elegant design and I look forward to buying products carrying this logo from July this year."

Ireland's largest certification body expressed a mixed opinion on it: �IOFGA are glad to see that the arduous process of designing a new EU Logo for organic products has finally come to an end.

The fact that the process has taken so long may mean that the logo has lost some momentum particularly with some of our members who have repackaged their products in the interim. The final three logos initially did not impress but on closer examination the winning design does have some appeal.�

They go on �It is a clean design with a strong emphasis on Europe which of course is the objective of the logo. It remains to be seen how the logo is used on products and an extensive advertising campaign is important to highlight the new logo to organic consumers.�

UK certification bodies, however, have come out fairly unimpressed by the logo.

Molly Conisbee, director of communications and campaigns at the Soil Association said:

"The Soil Association doesn't believe the EU logo will address the desire of consumers to know more about the provenance of their food...�.

She goes on to claim that �we don't think people who buy organic food are so much concerned about EU origins� compared to other values.

The UK's Organic Farmers and Growers called all the logos �a bit dull and uninformative�.

And yet, the latter also considered another of the three logos to be �hieroglyphic�, and possibly a cause of confusion with its small size and intricate detail.

To be fair to the EU Commission, an inevitable confusion was caused by the use of the word �Bio� in the rest of the EU, and �Organic� in Britain and Ireland, to describe the same certification system.

UK certification bodies seem to be both expressing and pandering to a very British cultural separateness from the EU, whilst also protecting their own economic patch.

The Soil Association, for example, feel that their logo is already very familiar, trusted by consumers, and representative of their �higher� standards.

However, as this new logo will inevitably appear on far more products than any one body certifies, this familiarity may soon be backgrounded by the Euro-Leaf.

The EU Organic Standard: surprisingly pro the small guy

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.