Organic Food | Artisan Food Law

Organic Food

Organic survey reveals people across Europe hugely opposed to GMOs

In January 2013 the European Commission launched a public consultation on the future of organic agriculture. Artisan Food Law raised the hope that questions around the presence of GMOs in organic food “… do not become a precursor to proposals that would permit higher levels of contamination or, worse still, the deliberate inclusion of GM ingredients in organic products.” The report on the results of the consultation was published on 19 September and sets out clearly that the people of Europe are against GMOs.

Review of EU policy on the future of organic agriculture

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the future of organic agriculture. European organic production rules cover the whole production chain from farm to fork. Producers who follow the rules have the right to label their products ‘organic’ and to put the EU green leaf logo on packaging. The rules for organic production are set out in Regulation (EC) No 34/2007 and Regulation (EC) No 889/2008.

The consultation raises a number of key issues: simplifying the legal framework, the co-existence of GM crops with organic farming, better control systems and trade arrangements and the impact of the new labelling rules.

Supervising organic production – more bureaucracy for producers?

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) recently published a special report: Audit of the Control System Governing the Production, Processing, Distribution and Imports of Organic Products. The report sets out the results of a recent audit on the effectiveness of the arrangements for supervising organic production.