THE PROJECT
The ‘BEING ORGANIC in EU’ project is a promotional campaign organized by FederBio in cooperation with Naturland, co-financed by the European Union under EU Regulation no. 1144/2014.
Our project to promote organic farming in Europe as a way of ‘BEING’ is aimed at increasing and strengthening public interest in European organic products in the respective internal markets by raising awareness and recognition of European organic farming methods/standards and the EU organic logo.
The “BEING ORGANIC in EU” project aims to contribute to a sustainable food-production system in line with the ‘European Green Deal’ and its ‘Farm to Fork’ and ‘Biodiversity 2030’ strategies, to arrive at a food system that’s ethical, healthy, ecological and resilient in terms of climate, from primary production all the way to consumers’ tables, and also to transform the EU into a modern, efficient economy in terms of resources and competitivity. The goals of the project are:
ZERO NET EMISSIONS OF GREENHOUSE GASES BY 2050;
ECONOMIC GROWTH INDEPENDENT OF THE UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES;
NO PEOPLE OR PLACES NEGLECTED AND IGNORED.
The initiatives put in place by the project are completely in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal and its strategies, and are instrumental to implementing the ‘European organic action plan’.
Goals
1
Raise awareness of European organic production and the EU organic logo among consumers and market operators. Increase recognition of the logo and of the methods and benefits of European organic farming. Even though the EU organic logo is one of the most recognized of the EU quality labels, there’s still room for improvement:
a)the level of awareness of the EU organic logo;
b) the level of awareness of organic farming and its advantages.
THE ORGANIC LOGO HAS BEEN CHOSEN BY THE E.U. AS A FLAGSHIP FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD-PRODUCTION SYSTEMS.
Constant efforts need to be made in order to connect the concepts of credibility and quality to the EU logo, as well as raising awareness of the logo among consumers. All the national labels reminiscent of the EU label help to raise awareness, yet, as established in the BEING ORGANIC IN EU plan, the various member states need to carry out concerted action, which should concentrate on promoting the EU organic logo to selected target groups.
Essentially, the goal of the Being Organic project is to raise awareness and recognition of the European organic logo, not only on a national level but with European consumers as a whole, no matter which member state they belong to.
2
Increase the consumption of European products recorded by the Organic Union Quality scheme.
3
Highlight and inform about the specific methods used in organic farming in the European Union.
THE PROMOTERS OF THE PROJECT
FederBio – Italian Federation of Organic and Biodynamic Agriculture – is a federation of organisations from the entire Italian organic and biodynamic farming sector, with the
aim of protecting and promoting its development. FederBio is recognised as an institutional representative of the sector at national and regional tables. It is a member of IFOAM and ACCREDIA, the Italian body for the accreditation of certification bodies.
The Federation is structured in thematic and professional member sections: Producers, Certification Bodies,
Processors and Distributors, Service and Technical Operators, Cultural Associations. FederBio is therefore a multiprofessional entity, aiming to improve and extend the quality and quantity of food products obtained with organic and biodynamic farming techniques, through ethical and professional rules, in line with mandatory standards and IFOAM directives. In particular, FederBio intends to ensure the rigorousness and fairness of the behaviour of members, bound in this sense by a Code of Ethics and is concerned to verify the application of common standards.
FederBio, on the occasion of EXPO Milan 2015, has promoted the Action Network ‘Organic can feed the planet‘, a forum made up of national and international organic and biodynamic organisations. The Forum was born with the aim of demonstrating that organic is a fair, eco-aware, healthy agricultural system, able to respond to the challenge of feeding the Planet while preserving it: organic is the most important agricultural and food innovation of the late 20th century, based on the rediscovery of an ecosystemic, socially inclusive and economically resilient approach to the production of food and renewable raw materials.
Naturland – Association for Organic Agriculture – is a farmers’ association based in Germany that creates and implements ecological farming methods on a regional, national, and global scale, together with its partner organisations and farmers. Founded in 1982 in Bavaria, it developed itself in the region before extending its membership in the whole of Germany, Europe, and even globally.
As of today, there are 4,700 Naturland farms throughout Germany. They cultivate more than 440,000 hectares. 125,000 Organic farmers worldwide are associated.
Yet, the Naturland membership, which is accessible to any farmer wishing to shift to organic agriculture, is not
exclusive to German farmers: the organization has an extended global membership including almost 750 farmers in the EU.
Not only is the EU dimension at the membership level but it also works closely with around 1,000 European partner companies in the processing, catering, and trade sectors to develop their products and savoir-faire.
Naturland´s daily mission is to protect the environment, and education, provide added value to farmers and partners,
to develop and promote organic agriculture and to expand organic supply chains.
All Naturland’s farms and processors in the EU operate in accordance with EU organic standards and Naturland
Standards to produce top grade foodstuffs, from apples to cabbages, turkey to salmon, olive oil to elderberry liqueur, coffee to milk. Naturland’s value lies in those upper standards, and their quality offers the members an added value on the organic market. Naturland is one of the pioneer organisation in organic aquaculture even before it was regulated at EU level in 2010.