Economic Concepts of Organic Certification

Certification is a key element in marketing organic food products. Based on economic theory, this report wants to illustrate the economic reasoning for certification. The intention is to provide a description of economic concepts, which is understandable for a wider audience. We are focusing on the basic economic literature. Chapter 1 “Organic certification system” describes the current control system in the European Union. Why this is necessary, will then be explained based on a synopsis of economic literature. Of specific significance for organic certification and the CERTCOST project are the concepts of institutional economics and economics of crime. The relevant points of economic theory will be presented and discussed in chapter 2 “Theoretical framework”. Finally, the costs and benefits of organic certification will be illustrated in chapter 3 “Costs and benefits of organic certification”

Commission to practice what it preaches

An ORGAP (Evaluation of the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming) research project paper questions whether the EU Commission is line with its own Principles of good governance regarding the revision process of the EU Organic Regulation

Stakeholder participation and stakeholder protest: On the planned revision of the EU Organic regulation

POSTER In Germany organic stakeholders largely reject the draft of the revised EU Organic regulation. This was evident at a workshop held within the framework of the ORGAP project, which brought together leading representatives of the organic sector in March 2006. The objective of the workshop was to develop indicators on the evaluation of the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming. The concerns voiced by stakeholders on the revision of the regulation were so strong that we consider it appropriate to i) report them and ii) to put them into perspective as a contribution to further discussion. This is the objective of this poster. MANUSCRIPT FOR THE POSTER PRESENTATION (TRANSLATED AND REVISED FROM https://orgprints.org/8515) Shortly before Christmas of last year, the Commission of the European Union (EU) published the draft of a new EU Organic Regulation. This draft proposal, which is intended to replace Council Regulation (EEC) 2092/91 and supplementary regulations, has provoked substantial criticism from the German organic sector. Thus the German farmers’ union (Deutscher Bauernverband, DBV) spoke of the “massive undermining of consumer protection” which could result from provisions in the draft. The German Federation of the Organic Food Industry (Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft, BÖLW) as the umbrella organization of organic producers, processors and traders rejects the present draft revision outright. The broad rejection of the draft replacement regulation was confirmed at a workshop held in the framework of the EU ORGAP project, which brought together leading representatives of the German organic sector on March 30, 2006 in Berlin. The ORGAP (Evaluation of the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming) research project is of special interest in connection with the new EU Organic Regulation, since the draft regulation explicitly (and quite unusually) makes specific reference to this project: its results will be drawn upon at a later stage in order to draft the detailed implementation provisions for the regulation. The methodological approach of the ORGAP research project places a very strong emphasis on stakeholder integration

Effects of Laser UV-Microirradiation (λ = 2573 A) on Proliferation of Chinese Hamster Cells

A laser uv-microbeam with a wavelength of 2573 Å having a minimum spot diameter of approx 0.5 μm was used to microirradiate interphase cells of a V-79 subline of Chinese hamster cells. The incident energy necessary to induce a significant decrease of proliferation was 30 to 60 times larger after microirradiation of cytoplasm as compared with microirradiation of nucleoplasm. The mean value of relative cell numbers 40 hr after irradiation as a function of incident energy did not differ whether the cells were microirradiated lying singly or together in small groups. Analysis of individual growth curves of singly lying cells microirradiated in the nucleoplasm with the same energy showed heterogeneous reactions. The incident energy per cell compatible with proliferation of about 50% of the cells after microirradiation of nucleoplasm was approx. 2× 10sup-3/sup ergs. From this value it is suggested that the energy density within the focus was in the region of several thousand ergs per square millimeter. Photochemical effects are thought to be the cause of growth disturbance, while thermal effects are excluded

Localized ultraviolet laser microbeam irradiation of early Drosophila embryos: Fate maps based on location and frequency of adult defects

Drosophila embryos were locally irradiated with a 257-nm laser microbeam during blastoderm and germ band stages. Depending on stage and beam diameter (10–30 μm), from 0 to 45 nuclei were exposed to the uv radiation. The doses used, 5 or 10 erg, did not eliminate nuclei or cells at once, but up to 50% of the adult survivors from irradiated eggs carried defects in the thorax. These were scored with reference to the imaginal discs from which the affected structures derive. For each thoracic disc a “target center” was calculated as the weighted mean value of all beam locations affecting the respective adult derivatives. The target centers for the germ band stage map within the respective germ band segments. The pattern of target centers for the blastoderm stage is comparable to the thoracic region of published fate maps, and the distances between adjacent leg centers (approximately three cell diameters) agree with recent evidence based on mosaic flies. We discuss the question whether the target centers mark the position of the respective disc progenitor cells at the stages of irradiation and conclude that these positions are rendered rather correctly at least with reference to the longitudinal egg axis

Die Überwachung der Öko-Kontrolle in Deutschland – ein Ansatzpunkt zur Erhöhung des Verbrauchervertrauens

Die Analyse der im Jahre 2007 von Deutschland an die Europäische Kommission zu deren Überwachung des Kontrollsystems gemeldeten Daten offenbart signifikante Unterschiede im Kontroll- und Sanktionsverhalten zwischen einzelnen Kontrollstellen. Dieser Beitrag versucht auf der Basis der vorliegenden Daten, die Unterschiede zu erklären und diskutiert weitere, mögliche Einflussfaktoren

Modelling risk-based inspections in EU organic certification: data requirements and analysis tools

A Risk Based Inspection (RBI) scheme is a planning tool used to develop the optimum plan for the execution of inspection activities. Organic certification system could benefit from the implementation of RBIs in terms of higher effectiveness, i.e. trustability, and lower transaction costs for organic operators. Data from certification bodies provide basic information about non-compliances and structural aspects of organic operators. Here we propose a methodological approach to risk analysis modelling, based on discrete choice models and Bayesian networks, both aiming at the identification of key risk factor in the organic certification process in the European Union