El Tamiso at Biofach 2015: considerations

Last Wednesday, February 9, a small delegation from “el Tamiso” went to Nuremberg to visit the “Biofach” international organic agriculture fair. This small mission had some priority objectives, including deepening knowledge and relationships with some suppliers and having the opportunity to take note of the state of evolution of the international organic market. As for the first objective, we can say that some contacts have been deepened and the foundations have been laid for a new proposal to share principles (not only related to biological techniques in the strict sense but also linked to the social responsibility of production) that we will be able to talk about in a more complete and concrete way within a few months. The vision that we are taking home to the international organic world, on the other hand, has aroused great concern. In the various years of the event and especially in the last year, there has been a drastic reduction in the presence of producers and groups of producers, with a clear predominance of importers, distributors and processors. At the same time, the forms of communication chosen are increasingly aimed at communicating a product that is “healthy for body health and nutrition”, leaving out the principles of environmental and social sustainability of the production method. The indications with respect to the countries of origin of the raw material gradually disappear from the labels, leveling up towards a very low level of communication and transparency (the simplest example we can give is that in the vast majority of cases the definition of the territory of origin of the raw material shown below the organic logo is no longer related to a single country but in a much more general way to the European Union or outside the European Union, so the question “but where does what I eat come from?” Can't find any answers! ). In this sense, we are convinced that it will be necessary to identify, as soon as possible, partners who share our principles to bring attention back to these issues that we consider fundamental to enhance the work of our members and individual producers present in every part of the world and to ensure that organic does not only become “conventional with zero waste”.