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Standards and Certification

The move towards Organic production, the creation of Organic standards and the certification based on Organic standards has come a long ways in a short period; Fair Trade can learn a great deal from its progression, and theoretically should be able to follow much the same footsteps, if not piggy back upon it.

The Organic movement is organized as follows:

Three sets of international Organic standards have been set and agreed upon, by the United Sates Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the US, by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency, in Canada, and by the European Commission on Organic Farming, in the EU.

      

These institutions operate independently from one another but work closely to set Organic standards, as such each body recognizes the other standards, and accepts the others certification stamp as certified Organic. These standards are set to protect Organic farming, but say little about the social side of production; as such they do not currently have Fair Trade principles within their mandate.

In Canada, the new ‘Canada Organic’ label was the result of a 2008 agreement which turned Organic into a legally binding standard; product labelled with the Canada Organic stamp means standards set by the Canadian food and inspection agency have been met. Alternately, in Canada you will also see the USDA stamp, as well as the QAI stamp, as both are recognized internationally for their standards.

 

Furthermore, other international certification systems are used for verification, which are then recognized by Canada, such as:

Quality assurance international (QAI), is a European based certifier

  • To be certified by the QAI is to mean you will be recognized in Canada, the US and the EU as it standards are recognized by each party.

OCIA International

  • Is a non-profit, member-owned, agricultural organization, OCIA is dedicated to providing the highest quality organic certification services and access to global organic markets.

International certification services (ICS)

  • They have been providing organic certification services since 1980. Conceived in 1979 as Farm Verified Organic (FVO), ICS was one of the first organic certification agencies and still operates its original FVO program, in addition to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) and other sustainable programs.

Scientific certification services

  • Is a global leader in independent certification and verification of environmental, sustainability, stewardship, food quality, food safety and food purity claims

The institute for Market ecology (IMO)

  • Based in Switzerland, with roots in the Organic movement, IMO now certifies for Fair Trade on top of Organic both domestically and Internationally.

  • Ecocert  is a France based certification system, which has extended its system internationally, well established in Europe, and recognized in the USA by the USDA under the National Organic Program (NOP) and In Canada by Canada Organic.

This system is active in Canada, the USA and the EU through the above mentioned procedures. The institution’s standards are set, after which a host of independent certifiers work to certify products based on those standards. This applies in all three regions.

  • In BC for instance: Certified Organic Association of British Columbia (COABC) acts as an umbrella association for certification bodies which provide certification accreditation and leadership in the development of organic food production throughout British Columbia and Canada.
    • In BC this is made up of 17 independent regional certifiers each working with producers to ensure standards set by the CFIA are met.
    • This same system exists in each country, each state and each province