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IFOAM Positions & Statements |
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10/14/2011
IFOAM Issues Declaration of Support for Organic Management of the Paldang Land |
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The Paldang farmers have in the past two years seen their livelihoods being threatened by the looming ‘Restoration of the 4 Rivers Project’ under which the government wants to turn the farmland into a public park with cycle lanes by 2012, among claims that organic farming was having a negative impact on water quality in the region. |
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09/22/2011
IFOAM Position on The Use of Organic Seed and Plant Propagation Material in Organic Agriculture |
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The IFOAM World Board have developed and published a position paper on the use of organic seed and plant propagation material in organic agriculture in response to a motion that was passed at the 2008 general Assembly. The paper calls for the growth and greater independence of the organic propagation and seed market, the promotion of co-existence of the formal seed sector and farmer based organic propagation as well as greater use of on-farm testing. It supports initiatives that improve the legal situation for farmer-saved seeds and all other propagation material useful for organic cultivation. It acknowledges variety protection provided breeder exemptions and farmer’s privileges are guaranteed and for the allowance of non-organic seeds under specific situations. |
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09/22/2011
IFOAM Position on The Role of Smallholders in Organic Agriculture |
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The IFOAM World Board have developed and published a position paper on the role of smallholders in response to a motion that was passed at the 2008 general Assembly. The paper recognizes that despite the essential role of smallholders in food production, sustainable rural communities and biodiversity stewardship many are very poor and have insufficient access to resources and support. It calls for much higher investment in pro-smallholder science, technology, infrastructure, services and innovation and for policies at all levels to promote sustainable organic smallholder systems and businesses. |
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09/13/2011
Policy Brief on Organic Import Regulation |
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The IFOAM World Board approved in July 2011 a new IFOAM Policy Brief entitled “How Governments can regulate Imports of organic Products Based on the concepts of Harmonization and equivalence”. This Policy Brief synthesizes positions and concrete policy recommendations developed over the years by IFOAM and its strategic partners. |
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08/15/2011
Policy Brief on "How Governments Can Support Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS)" |
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In July 2011 the IFOAM World Board approved the final version of the IFOAM Policy Brief on "How Governments Can Support Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS)". Recognizing that different countries have very different regulatory environments, the Policy Brief proposes various PGS-supportive scenarios, ranging from "not regulating an emerging organic market", to "including PGS as one fo the conformity assessment systems permitted under the regulation". |
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07/08/2011
Position paper on the Use of Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials in Organic Agriculture |
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In 2010 and 2011, IFOAM has developed, in consultation with its membership, a position on the use of nanotechnology in organic agriculture. The final position was approved by the IFOAM World Board in April 2011. This position is a natural development after many of IFOAM’s members had already formed and sometimes published their own position, rejecting the use of nanotechnology in organic agriculture. The official IFOAM position now synthetizes these positions and provides a uniform standpoint for the organic movement. |
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09/20/2010
IFOAM Declaration for Living Change Endorsed by Alternative Nobel Prize Laureates |
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On the occasion of the Inspiration for Living Change Conference, held at the Gustav-Stresemann-Institut, Bonn, Germany on September 16th, 2010, 10 alternative Nobel Prize Laureates and over 200 participants supported the 'IFOAM Declaration for Living Change' |
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09/03/2010
New draft Positions on Seed and Smallholders open for comments |
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At the last IFOAM General Assembly motions instructing the IFOAM World Board to develop position papers on the primordial role of smallholders and family farmers in the context of food sovereignty and on the use of organic seed and propagation materials in organic agriculture were adopted. The first draft of the IFOAM Position on Smallholders (available in both English and Spanish) and the second draft IFOAM Position on Seeds are now available for comment. The deadline for feedback for both papers is September 22, 2010. |
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08/26/2006
The St. Paul Declaration |
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On the occasion of the first IFOAM International Conference on Animals in Organic Production, held at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, from August 23 to 25, 2006, over 250 participants from over 24 countries unanimously approved the following declaration in support of organic animal production. |
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12/30/2004
Position on the full diversity of Organic Agriculture |
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Organic Agriculture is often perceived as only referring to certified Organic Agriculture. The aim of this position paper is to make clear that IFOAM’s view of Organic Agriculture goes far beyond certification. IFOAM’s mission embraces the ‘worldwide adoption’ of Organic Agriculture ‘in its full diversity’. Part of the full diversity of Organic Agriculture worldwide is non-certified Organic Agriculture.
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06/01/2004
The Role of Organic Agriculture in Mitigating Climate Change |
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There is dramatic evidence that various Greenhouse Gases are responsible for Global Warming and climate change. It is also clear that the most important solution to Global Warming is the dramatic reduction of fossil fuel use, and that other strategies shall not be an excuse to continue with business as usual. A study commissioned by IFOAM discusses the potential of Organic Agriculture both to avoid and to sequester Greenhouse Gases (GHG), and makes comparisons with conventional agriculture. The second part describes how Organic Agriculture can be considered within the implementation mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. The study shows that organic agriculture can play a role both for reducing GHG emissions and to sequester carbon.
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02/03/2003
Small holder group certification for organic production and processing |
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The majority of agriculture practitioners worldwide are smallholders. Adoption of organic agriculture, a sustainable environmental friendly management system, is vitally linked to market access. It is imperative that small operators are not marginalized and unduly excluded from the organic sector due to factors beyond their control. Standards must allow for local equivalence and certification systems must be innovative and cost efficient enough to address smallholders' situation worldwide, particularly in developing countries. In this submission we give our opinion about group certification for smallholders in developing countries. However we also want to point out that there may be a number of other situations where group certification concepts may be relevant and applicable, and we would like in a nearby future also to have a dialogue on these issues. |
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06/15/2002
Position paper for the World Food Summit in Rome |
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The reasons for food insecurity are mainly to be found in social and economic factors such as poverty and inequality. Therefore it is in that area that the main solutions are to be found. However it is also agriculture itself that plays an important role. The current food system may produce impressive quantities of food, but its accessibility to the hungry has demonstrated its limits and the quality leaves much to desire. The sustainability both of conventional agriculture and agribusiness at large is questioned. Organic agriculture offers the most comprehensive response to the sustainability problems facing agriculture and our food production system. |
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05/21/2002
Position on Genetic Engineering and Genetically Modified Organisms |
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The introduction of Genetic Engineering into agriculture has confronted the organic movement with new challenges. The purpose of this position is to provide IFOAM and its internal bodies with the Federation's position on Genetic Engineering; and to guide IFOAM members in the development of their own positions. |
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01/08/2002
Organic Agriculture and Food Security |
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While affluent regions and social classes struggle with surplus production and surplus consumption, close to one fifth of the global population lives in constant under-nourishment.
Subsistence production of basic foods is restricted in many regions by lack of access to capital, land and water. At the same time, more favoured growing areas are used for commercial production of speciality crops or animal feeds for export to affluent regions. The major constraints to food security are found in social, economic and political conditions rather than in production methods themselves. The main solutions to food security problems will therefore be found in social, economic and political improvement. |
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01/07/2002
Organic Agriculture and Biodiversity |
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The 2000 IUCN Red List of threatened species of the world highlights habitat loss as the main threat to biodiversity, with agricultural activities affecting 70 per cent of all threatened bird species and 49 per cent of all plant species. However, despite agriculture being responsible for such well-documented losses in biodiversity, it can also provide a tool for biodiversity conservation if policies and approaches, which combine agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, can be defined and implemented.
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09/02/2000
Basel declaration (2) |
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The 2000 IFOAM General Assembly of Basel, Switzerland which has had 284 participating organizations from 57 countries views with great alarm the decision of the Irish Department of Agriculture to remove the right of the grassroots certifiers in Ireland to operate private certification schemes with their own standards under Regulation 2092/91 |
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09/02/2000
Basel declaration (1) |
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This IFOAM General Assembly which represents 284 organizations from 57 countries deplores the recent action by at least three governments which will prevent private certifiers from operating according to private standards which exceed the national standards and which will nullify the value of their privately registered certification marks.
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12/19/1999
IFOAM at the WTO in Seattle |
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Delegates of IFOAM where present at the WTO ministerial in December 1999.
They advocated for the following position: |
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10/19/1988
Mar del Plata declaration |
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In the 12th Scientific Conference of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, that took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina, November 16th-19th 1998, more than 600 delegates from over 60 countries voted unanimously a declaration against the use of genetically modified organisms in food production and agriculture. |
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