In a world where consumers are becoming increasingly environment-conscious, having an organic certification can prove to be very important. Alan Rosenberg, chairperson of the South African Organic Sector Organisation (SAOSO), gives us some insight into how to obtain organic certification.
Established in 2009, the SAOSO is a non-profit organisation that came about out of a need for solid policy around organic food production. Rosenberg, who has been working in the organic industry for over 40 years, explains that for the industry to engage with government, some type of standard needed to be developed.
“Those of us who were in the organic space knew that engagement at government level would need a standard, because the standard would ideally form the basis of policy. And the policy would engender the formation of a strategy. So that was the mindset behind the advocation of a standard.”
Though the country still has no legislation managing organic food production, the SAOSO developed the Standard for Organic Production and Processing, a set of guidelines and principles governing certification in the industry.
“The SAOSA standards are in the IFOAM International Family of Standards, which represent 800 affiliates across 117 different countries.”
Where to start
For farmers wanting to start their journey towards organic certification, Rosenberg recommends they read the Rights of Mother Earth. The document, he says, is a guide that references how people, the environment, economics, and ethics need to be aligned in order to become organic.
The document is also one of the philosophies SAOSO bases its policies on, as well as the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Section 24 of the Constitution, and The Earth Charter. Rosenberg says the standard provides a description of the organic ecosystem and outlines the organic certification requirements farmers must meet for their crop production, animal husbandry, and winemaking, amongst other farming types.
“There’s also approval, verification, and equivalence. There are even [guidelines] at a social justice level. The standards are seemingly quite complex, but the simplest way to describe [following organic standards] is that we are trying to develop soil. The old-world paradigm suggested that the job of the farmer was to grow crops. The current unfolding paradigm is that the job of the farmer is to grow soil.”
Different approaches to organic certification
Organic certification takes three forms. With first-party certification, the producer essentially makes an organic “self-claim”, Rosenberg says. “[The farmer] forms a relationship at the farm gate with a consumer who’s prepared and willing to buy [their] produce and he, she, or they, trusts that when [the farmer] says it’s organic, it is organic.”
Under the second party certification, a producer working with short supply chains gets verified through a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS). The PGS route has a major focus on localised food systems, which is generally why they review the practices of smallholders.
“[How it works is] a number of practitioners who live and work within a particular domain, in a certain locality, come together to form a [PGS] group. All the role players in the [local] value chain come and do an assessment on the farm.”
The farmers in the PGS evaluate other farms, Rosenberg explains, inviting consumers and input suppliers to these visits and conducting surveys on the practices on the farm to determine whether they are organic. For farmers, usually commercial, who work within long value chains, third-party certification is required. Rosenberg says that in this case, the farmer interacts and complies with an accredited certification body in order to obtain assurance.
“They would then invite that body to come and monitor the farming practises, as well as look at all the record keeping. On the basis of that assessment, the third party certifying body will determine if that farmer is considered organic or not, and there might be conditions they need to meet before a final status of being organic.”
Certification is not a quick process
Outside of first-party certification, Rosenberg says the route to being declared organic can take anything from a year to three years to complete.
“Crops take about a year and a half [to be certified]. So you can’t be organic by default. You can’t say, for instance, that your grandfather and his grandfather and the grandfather before him never applied any chemicals to their land, so therefore your farm is organic. One has to accept that when you claim organic status, you to have a vision of the practices that you will engage with on the farm going into the future.”
One of the critical ingredients for organic certification is a management programme.
“You have to have a soil fertility management programme, an insect, pest, and disease management programme, etc. Invariably, it’s not a short process but it can take anywhere between one and three years, depending on the conditions, out of which you originally embark on the organic route.”
Though a long process, certification is not indefinite. Once certified, farmers would be subject to annual review.
“The organic status is only given for a period of one year. So, there’s an assessment that’s either carried out by the local PGS Group or by that third party, the accredited certification body.”
The benefits of certification
Rosenberg highlights that one of the benefits of official organic certification is the credibility that it engenders.
“Having the certification enables the farmer to market his or her produce in civil society on the basis that somebody [accredited] has determined the organic status of their produce.”
Being able to market your produce in the comfort of knowing that it was verified by a legitimate third party, also means that you could ask for a premium because now your product is certified.
“It also benefits you in the long run because the longer you maintain your organic integrity, the smaller and the fewer inputs you need to maintain and develop soil fertility. So being certified organic is that your soil profile develops to the point where it becomes much more sustainable.”
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