New organic law
At the Biofach Congress, the EU Commission, the federal government, the federal states and associations discussed the design of the detailed regulations of the new organic law. Nicolas Verlet, EU Commission, presented important cornerstones of the new basic organic regulation. Verlet stated that the Commission will work closely with the EU member states and the organic sector on the further development of the regulation. In order for organic companies to have planning security quickly, the Commission urged that the production rules - including those for animal husbandry and crop cultivation - be drawn up first.
Elisabeth Bünder, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, assured that organic farmers will only be responsible for the things that are within their sphere of influence under the newly anchored precautionary obligations.
Martin Ries, Ministry for Rural Areas in Baden-Württemberg, expects the federal and state governments to work together constructively on the formulation of the organic regulation. Indefinite legal terms would have to be clarified and translated into actionable rules.
Georg Eckert, Federal Association of Control Bodies, warned that the new organic law must be controllable and legally secure. In particular, the control and implementation of the precautionary measures, the annual control and the implementation of the import rules left open questions that now need to be clarified.
Jan Plagge, BÖLW, welcomed the fact that the EU Commission wants to fall back on the expertise of organic practitioners in the further development of the new legal framework and to adopt proven rules from the existing organic law in the new regulation. With a view to the new regulation for dealing with contamination, he warned that an EU-wide monitoring program for pesticides should already be launched and that the approval of pesticides should be improved in such a way that contamination is prevented, so that the coexistence of organic and conventional agriculture is secured.
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