Inspector at Work
The International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA) is the professional organization of organic inspectors and offers training and networking world-wide for crop, livestock, and processing inspectors. IOIA was founded in 1991 and started training inspectors in 1993. Now, 20 years later, the IOIA Training Institute trains hundreds of inspectors through dozens of on-site or web-based internationally-recognized training events annually. IOIA operates globally with nearly 250 inspector members in more than a dozen countries. IOIA provides a critical voice for inspectors regarding policies that impact inspectors and organic certification without losing sight of what matters most— growing sustainable agriculture and earth stewardship.
We provide quality training wherever it is requested, foster regional inspector organizations, and improve availability of local inspectors. IOIA trains consultants, educators, and policymakers. Members of IFOAM since 1994, we collaborated with them to produce the IFOAM/IOIA International Organic Inspection Manual, which is the basic manual for all IOIA inspection courses. We respond to requests from around the globe by working with cosponsors and a multi-lingual staff of 24 trainers located worldwide. For example, in 2010, we provided producer workshops in South Africa. In 2011, we delivered organic aquaculture inspection training in a Hong Kong classroom via webinar with a regional cosponsor, a Canadian trainer, and an expert presenter from the USA. We are a partner of the IFOAM Academy to support the first Organic Leadership Course training in the USA, scheduled for March 2013. This training aims to strengthen organic leadership and help build the organic leaders of tomorrow. Each training event in a new region provides a nucleus for generating a new branch of a truly sustainable agricultural network.
South Africa Producer Workshop with Lisa Pierce, IOIA Trainer
Both inspections and inspector training must be rigorous to guarantee organic integrity to the consumer. Inspectors are typically the only persons on-site annually to verify organic practices for both private and governmental certification bodies. IOIA fills an essential niche to make sure organic really means organic! Thank you, and best wishes to IFOAM. We will continue to value you as a working partner in growing sustainability, so that organic becomes the norm, not the exception. Happy Anniversary!
Margaret Scoles
International Organic Inspectors Association
www.ioia.net
from the certified organic production sector. It implements and supports projects focusing on training, information and awareness of the society on the respect of the environment and the consumption of organic food, like the annual Organic Week taking place in Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha and Extremadura. The association also communicates on the social and environmental benefits of organic farming, organizing broadcasting campaigns and promoting initiatives aimed at the youth such as workshops for young people or Summer Camps for younger children, combining recreational activities with educational ones and organic meals. CAAE supports the producers and the industrial organic sector, highlighting them as best allies to mitigate climate change effects. It also fosters biodiversity through projects like the Diversification of Agrarian Landscapes in Andalusia delivering organic plants and trees for more than 10 years in order to improve both the rural landscape and the sustainability of the farms.
At the international level, and for a few years now, CAAE is developing a cooperation project in Peru to boost the organic production with the aim to improve life conditions sustainably in less-favored communities. It also works together with Portugal with the objective to share experiences and technical knowledge with the organization of congresses on the inter-relation between preservation of the environment and organic farming.
Lots of companies registered in the CAAE Association are pioneers in sustainable initiatives linked to the use of clean energies, sustainable management of water or energy use, promotion of biodiversity, organic tourism, recycling, compost, bio-construction, etc. sharing their experiences in forums and conferences.
According to ICEA, Organic Agriculture can contribute to meaningful socio-economic and ecological sustainable development of the livelihood, both in the developed countries than in developing ones.
An example of this fruitful approach is represented by the recent membership of the Ecuadorian FECD – Fondo Ecuatoriano de Cooperación para el Desarrollo – who has joined the ICEA consortium in 2011. FECD has a long lasting experience in Ecuador promoting and implementing sustainable development related activities, with a specific focus on the livelihoods of smallholder producers adopting organic agriculture. FECD works with an innovative approach for the implementation of its projects, putting emphasis on the “human side” of the entire process, from production to certification; actually FECD is using in all its activities the “focusing” approach, a methodology derived from psychotherapy and has adapted it for the management of non-profit organizations.
