The organic market is confronted with hundreds of private sector standards and governmental regulations, two international standards for organic agriculture (Codex Alimentarius and IFOAM) and a host of conformity assessment and accreditation systems. Mutual recognition and equivalency among these systems is extremely limited. Discussions in a number of forums including...

This publication presents papers of the sixth meeting of the ITF, held in Stockholm, Sweden in October 2006. Also included here is the first draft of the International Requirements for Organic Certification Bodies (IROCB), which is a tool for equivalence of organic conformity assessment systems. In addition, the volume contains...

The publication series “Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture” chronicles the work and progress of the ITF over the course of its meetings. Studies, meeting reports and communiqués, and drafts of ITF tools under development are compiled into volumes corresponding to the annual meetings of the ITF. This volume contains...

This document sets out international requirements for organic certification bodies (IROCB). These requirements are intended to represent a consensus on good practices in organic conformity assessment among private and public institutions. They aim to provide a baseline for assessing the equivalence of services performed by various certification bodies outside a...

The Conference on Ecological Agriculture: Mitigating Climate Change, Providing Food Security and Self-Reliance for Rural Livelihoods in Africa was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 26-28 November 2008. It was organised by the African Union (AU), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development...

The organic market is confronted with hundreds of private sector standards and governmental regulations, two international standards for organic agriculture (Codex Alimentarius and IFOAM) and a host of conformity assessment and accreditation systems. Mutual recognition and equivalency among the systems is extremely limited. The multitude of certification requirements and regulations...