The Organic Integrity Mapping Project

 The Organic Integrity Mapping Project – 2024 Survey” undertaken by The Alliance has taken place and the results from 87 submitted surveys are being consolidated. We’re grateful to all those who responded, 50% of whom were from Europe or North America with the remaining from South Asia, South East Asia, Australia, Central & South America, Africa & the Middle East. Around 30% of respondents were from Associations, Membership or Networking organisations, 28% were certifiers with the remaining from government bodies, retailers, not-for-profits, input assessors, standard owners a laboratory and an accreditation body.

This website will feature an article on the full results, but in the meantime here is a preview showing respondents views on the importance of various organic integrity issues and the major challenges going forward.

When respondents were asked how important various organic integrity issues were on a scale of 1-5,  the following percentage rated them as being important (4 or 5/5):

  • 75% of respondents believed the harmonization of regulations is important, to ensure organic integrity globally
  • 76% of respondents believed the development of better forensic tools is important, to ensure organic integrity globally
  • 80% believed it was important for the organic community to communicate about organic integrity issues
  • 83% believed it was important to prevent and tackle fraud, to ensure organic integrity globally
  • 90% of respondents believe it is important to build competence through training, to ensure organic integrity globally

When asked “what do you think are the biggest challenges to organic integrity that are currently affecting your organization/clients/customers…”, respondents noted the following:

 

  • Poor consumer understanding of organic / not telling story to consumer
  • Lack of harmonized oversight
  • Need for digitization of millions of small holders and traceability
  • Greenwashing and the competition to organic
  • Poor quality inspection
  • CRISPR, GM, Hydroponics creeping in Fraud: money to be made from and reputational damage
  • Fraudulent non-organic products on the market (true organic cannot compete)
  • Mistrust of the system outside the US and EU
  • Complexity of regulation
  • Record keeping burden for producers
  • Cost of certification
  • Lack of domestic regulation (Australia)
  • Alignment of training requirements between CBs
  • Lack of resources, especially for small and remote producers
  • Too much energy given to residues rather than prevention

Email us to request for the full report.