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IFOAM Positions |
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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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