Demeter and Organic Certi�cation CERTIFICATION NEWSLETTER • NO. 2 • APRIL 2011
• Certification scheme name
O
ver the past two years the Biodynamic Association has been going through a rebranding process in order to make public perception much clearer. This resulted in a word mark logo as can be seen on the top right of this newsletter. You will see this logo on all of our publciations and website. Along with this process we looked at how we were presenting our certification scheme. For good reasons this has been called Demeter Certification since its inception. Its main purpose has always been to provide Demeter certification for biodynamic food and farming and this continues to be so. However we had increasingly more enquiries for a stand alone organic certification. This came from producers and processors who were either starting on the path towards biodynamics or held biodynamics as an aspiration. We also have licensees who appreciate and want to support our ethos. Whilst this has been a positive development some confusion has arisen in the minds of some consumers and producers. Examples have arisen of producers who say they are organically certified by Demeter - which is not possible. We have now taken steps to remedy this by calling the certification scheme the Biodynamic Association Certification Scheme. Out of this we offer both Demeter and organic certification. We also offer product approval as well as approval to US NOP Standards as part of our evolving portfolio. This does not affect your certification in any way but makes it clearer on the certificates and the documents that we produce. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us. Richard Swann
• Certification Office In the last issue of this newsletter we said that we would be moving. This took place last November and Angela is well settled in her new spacious office in the Painswick Inn in Stroud. She is the first point of contact for all aspects concerning your certification (apart from technical issues),for example certificates, bill payments, new enquiries and so on. Contact details are to be found in the right panel.
•Biodynamic wine Sedlescombe Vineyard in Kent brought out the first UK Demeter certified wine in time for Christmas. It was a white wine called First Release. We now hear that more delicious wines are on the way . The vineyard is UK’s oldest and most established organic vineyard having been pioneered and developed by Roy Cook and his wife Irmina for over 30 years. For more details go to the Sedlescombe Vineyard website: www.englishorganicwine.co.uk
IN THIS ISSUE • Certification name • Certification Office • Demeter wine • Changes to the inspection forms • Timing of inspection visits • SA food awards • Derogations • Animal Health Study • Demeter International Standards development Contacts General enquiries Angela Wilson Certification Office Painswick Inn Project Gloucester Street Stroud Glos GL5 1QG Tel: 01453 766296 Email: demeter@biodynamic.org.uk Normal office hours: Monday - Thursday 9.45 – 5.00 pm Production and Scheme management: Timothy Brink Email: timbrink@biodynamic.org.uk Processing, packing, distribution and import: Richard Swann Email: rswann@biodynamic.org.uk Production Certification Officer and Derogations: Lucy Jones Email: lucyjones@biodynamic.org.uk
www.biodynamic.org.uk
News and updates
Timothy Brink
• New Farming and Horticulture Inspection Forms and Questionnaires We have been working over the past months to develop new farming and horticulture inspection forms and questionnaires. These are now finished and ready for use. The format is similar to the forms that we have been using for processing, packing and importing for a couple of years. There are now two separate forms for the inspection – the Questionnaire and the Assessment form. The Questionnaire is for you to complete. It will be sent to you before the inspection together with the Field Activity Record. The Questionnaire contains the information that we need from you in preparation for the inspection. It also contains the checklist of documents that we ask you to have ready and available for the inspection. Please complete the Questionnaire before the inspection. Please also check and complete the Field Activity Record before the inspection. The Field Activity Record lists all of your field data as in our records. It is essential that this field data is correct. Please check carefully all field numbers and areas. If they are
not correct, correct the data according to the guidance note at the top of the Field Activity Record. There are also columns for you to record soil fertility inputs and biodynamic field sprays for each field. Some producers have commented that this form does not give enough space for the biodynamic field sprays. This is certainly the case where there are multiple applications of the field sprays – which we very much encourage. If there is not enough space on this form, show our inspector your biodynamic field spray records in whatever format works for you.
The Assessment form is for the inspector to complete during the course of the inspection. The inspector will bring this form with him. It is a checklist which gives space for him to write his comments. Toward the end of the form he will specify any non compliances noted at the inspection. The completed assessment form is then sent to the Certification Officer (CO) who reviews the report and makes the certification decision. The CO signs off the form and sends the completed Assessment form to you. This will be your certification report. It will provide you with the inspector’s comments from the inspection, and will specify any non compliances and the timescale for corrective action. This should simplify and speed up the process post inspection. The result should be that you receive your certification report sooner after the inspection. Our target is to send out all certification reports within two months of the inspection, but we hope that most will go out much sooner than that.
• Timing of inspection visits Many licensees are surprised if an inspection visit takes place at a different time than in the previous year. We do need to vary timing of inspections from one year to the next. Our target is to carry out inspections between 9 months and 15 months after the last inspection. This is for two reasons. We want to visit farms and horticultural operations at different times of the years so that we can see the crops and livestock in
different circumstances. For example, it is good to see livestock both at grazing and in their winter housing. The second reason is that our inspectors often have to travel long distances, and they do several inspections in one trip to make their journeys cost effective. In order to organise their inspections efficiently, it is sometime necessary to group inspections differently from the previous year, and this can affect the timing of
inspections. We do appreciate that timing of payment is related to timing of inspections, and you may find it difficult if you have an inspection in less that one year since your last inspection. If this is an issue for you, please contact Angela and discuss with her. We are willing to be flexible with timing of payment in this situation.
• Soil Association Organic Food Awards 2011 The Soil Association have announced their Organic Food Awards for 2011. Many biodynamic producers have entered in the past and quite a few have won awards. Perhaps you would like to enter this year? Laura Andrews from the Soil Association contacted the Biodynamic Association
and asked us to let you know about these awards. She sent us the following: Would you like the opportunity to showcase your best quality organic food and drink and be given the accolade of a winning certificate and logo for ongoing promotional use? Now in their 23rd year, the Soil Association Organic Food Awards are the most prestigious and widely respected in the organic sector. With the help of an expert panel of judges including chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and specialists, alongside celebrity foodies, the aim of these
awards is to celebrate and raise the profile of great organic food. The awards are now open for entries until the deadline of Friday 3 June 2011. Information on how to enter the awards, along with the entry form, can be found at www.soilassociation.org/ foodawards.aspx. Alternatively, please contact Laura Andrews, Events Coordinator at the Soil Association on 0117 987 4586 or landrews@soilassociation.org Wishing you the best of luck!
News and updates
Timothy Brink
• Derogations Lucy Jones is now be dealing with all derogations for producers. This includes seed derogations, but also derogations for all other production matters such as vet treatments, soil fertility treatments, brought in non organic livestock for breeding, etc. Lucy’s email address is lucyjones@biodynamic.org.uk Her contact details can be found on our website. Richard Swann will continue to deal with all processing, packing, and importing derogations. His email address is rswann@biodynamic.org.uk Sometimes producers are not sure in what circumstances a derogation is needed. I have tried to make this clear in the latest edition of the production standards (the March 2010 edition). Appendix 7 of the production standards lists all of the common derogations and specifies which of these need a derogation from the office. If you are uncertain if a derogation is needed, please have a look at Appendix 7. If you need a derogation for farming or horticulture, please contact Lucy. It has been a busy time for seed derogations. Most of you are now doing a good job of sending derogations for any purchase of non organic seeds – thank you for your attention to this. However, derogations for 65% organic seed mixes are sometimes problematic. Most of you are now sending in derogations for 65% organic seed mixes, but we often do not get all of the information we need. We need two things from you – details of all non organic seeds in the mix, and evidence that the proportion of organic or biodynamic seeds in the mix is at least 65%.
• Job Advert – Certification Officer We are advertising in the very near future for a Processing Certification Officer. The Certification Officer reviews the inspection reports and makes the certification decision. This will be a part time job – initially about 3 hours per week. But there is scope for this job to expand in the future and may include processing inspection work as well. The job can either be done in a home office or at the Biodynamic Association Certification office in Stroud. Full details will be posted on our website. Two options are: • Send in a completed seed derogation form with details of all seeds – biodynamic, organic and non organic, or • Send in a completed seed derogation form with details of non organic seeds only, and send in a copy of your invoice which shows the varieties and weights of all seeds in the mix. The seeds invoice will give us the evidence we need that the seed mix is at least 65% organic or biodynamic seeds. If you have any questions about this, please contact Lucy. Also, it is a great help for Lucy when seed derogations are sent in electronically. So if your IT skills are up to it, please send e copies of seed derogation forms.
• Warwick Animal Health Study
• Climate Friendly Food Carbon Calculator Recently the Biodynamic Association received notification that a Carbon Calculator has been created by a group of organic growers. It is designed for organic farmers and growers to calculate the carbon footprint of their business. You may be interested to work with this. The Carbon Calculator can be obtained free of charge by visiting the website: www.cffcarboncalculator.org.uk.
Warwick University carried out a DEFRA sponsored study in 2010 which compared animal health on farm assured, organic, and biodynamic farms. They reviewed Animal Health inspection visits to these farms and compared the findings. The review found overall animal health to be significantly higher on organic farms than on farm assured farms, and to be significantly higher on biodynamic farms than on organic farms. Of course that is what we would hope and expect, but it is very reassuring to have this confirmed in a major study. A report on this study can be found on the DEFRA website under project code AW0510. An outcome of this research is that Animal Health has agreed to do fewer routine animal welfare visits to organic and biodynamic farms. This is in line with a targeted and risk based approach to their routine visits.
Demeter International
Richard Swann
Proposals for changes to the Demeter Standards. Each year the Demeter International Members Assembly considers proposals for amendment, addition or change to the Standards. These are sent out for consultation and each country is asked to cast a vote for each change. The next Assembly will be in Germany in June and the proposals have already been sent out for consideration. Here we would like to highlight some of the main ones. Changes are highlighted in the underlined text. 1. Production Standards - section 5.5.7 Animals from Demeter enterprises may be kept on community pastures if the pasture has not been managed conventionally for at least three years and if the conventional animals are from extensive conventional management. No conventional fodder supplements may be fed. Milk and meat may be certified Demeter when the animals return to Demeter fodder. 2. Production Standards - section 5.7 Animals brought in for fattening to yield meat for sale with the Demeter logo shall come exclusively from Demeter enterprises, and only if unavailable may be sourced from certified organic enterprises. 3. Production Standards - section 5.7 A) Brought in stock for breeding or herd expansion should in preference come from certified Biodynamic enterprises. Only if they are not available may animals from certified organic farms be brought in. When animals from organic farming are not available the certifying Demeter organisation can allow animals from conventional farms to be brought in ( up to a maximum of 40% of the herd), but only in the following cases: - rare breeds - to increase herd size - when a farm leases land complete with all the animals on it - sires (male breeding animals) - when a breed is changed - when a new livestock specialisation is developed If conventional animals are brought in, care must be taken (by appropriate quarantine) that contaminated manure does not reach Demeter certified land. 4. Production Standards - section 4 All farm manures must be prepared with the compost preparations. Intensively managed
areas (arable, vegetables, vineyards and orchards) including those in mountainous regions and all land producing fodder must be completely covered with the spray preparations every year. This requirement does not apply to unused or other permanently non-productive areas. . An exemption can be granted for steep slopes in mountainous regions (providing they are not intensively managed, or mown), and for areas that cannot be driven on. This exemption can be considered by the respective national organisation when the licensee produces a preparation management plan describing the planned preparation usage (areas incompletely or not covered and with what frequency, stirring and spraying machinery available on the farm, proposed improvements to the coverage in the future, etc.) The exemption has a time limit, but may be renewed. 5.Production Standards - appendix 4 Allowable Fertilisers - Processing by-products (fertilisers made from pure horn, bone meal or meat-bone meal, hair and feather, fish wastes and other similar products)* as an addition to the farmyard manure. Footnote: * In as far as it meets the requirements of Annex I EEC regulation 889/2008 or in the case of bone meal or meat-bone meal fulfils the requirements of the EC Regulation 1774/2002 for Category 3 (K3). 6. Production Standards - Appendix 5 allowable materials for plant care To remove: Waterglass, ethyl alcohol and diatomaceous earth. 7. Processing Standards Elaboration on separation and purging procedures for processing Demeter products. 8. Processing Standards - Section 6.8 A recommendation that the list of allowable ingredients for Demeter cosmetics follow the international NATRUE standards. 9. Production Standards - section 5.5.1 With regard to grazing of Demeter in conversion land by Demeter certified livestock (i.e. when a Demeter farm brings additional land into conversion): • Grazing of Demeter in conversion land by Demeter certified livestock is limited by the requirement that at least two thirds of the annual fodder (DM) must be from Demeter production (see above), and by the relevant organic
FOR YOUR DIARY.... 19th May Vineyard Meeting with Monty Waldin at Laverstoke Park 21st May Grow your Garden with Biodynamics with Monty Waldin at Emerson College 22nd July The Magic of the Honeybee with Johannes Wirz at Pishwanton, near Edinburgh 11th September Practical Biodynamic Introductory Workshop at Trinity Farm, Nottingham 10th - 13th November Biodynamic Association Conference at Emerson College
The Future of Agriculture a biodynamic approach with speakers: Patrick Holden, Ueli Huerter, Timothy Brink and Tyll van de Voort plus workshops and much more.
Biodynamic Food Fortnight (date to be confirmed)
more details on our website
www.biodynamic.org.uk standards. • Grazing of land that is Demeter in conversion should be restricted to young stock, dry cows and dry ewes wherever possible. Milking cows, ewes in milk, livestock within three months of finishing, and laying hens should be grazed on fully Demeter certified land wherever possible. 10. Labelling Standards A proposal that the word biodynamic must be mentioned on all Demeter products/processed products and in promotional material. We value your opinion on the above amendments. Please contact either Timothy or Richard via the emails on the front of this newsletter.