The organic farming scam
03.01.12
We cannot avoid commenting on the gigantic scam carried out against 'organic' in Italy, which the Guardia di Finanza brought out some time ago.
The following is our press release:
ORGANIC FRAUD — OPERATION “PUSS IN BOOTS” BY THE GdF OF VERONA
WHAT LOCAL ORGANIC PRODUCERS THINK ABOUT IT
The Guardia di Finanza, during the complex “Puss in Boots” operation, has recently seized thousands of quintals of counterfeit/organic cereals, for an estimated value of hundreds of millions of euros.
22 companies were involved (in particular grain wholesalers); the investigations started with the Sunnyland company, whose turnover in 2007 had increased fivefold, putting the Guardia di Finanza on who lives.
The products involved are cereals and grains mainly for livestock use (soybeans, corn), but also floured for human consumption and, even if it does not seem related to the main line of research, fruit and vegetables. Those arrested are three people from Verona (Caterina Albiero from Bioagri sas, Luigi Marinucci, Davide Scapini from Sunnyland), two from Puglia (Angela Siena, Michele Grossi), one from the Marche region (Stefano Spadini) and one from Ferrara (Andrea Grassi).
This has rightly had a wide echo in the media, it has alarmed public opinion and those like us who have been engaged for decades in the difficult business of producing and marketing organic products.
And who knows how many people today are pleased to think “did you see that...? I was saying it!” , a consequence of an attitude that has always been skeptical about the credibility, seriousness and quality of organic production. To the point of never wanting to know more about the actual warranty conditions, unique in their kind, that govern the system.
Without considering that the practice of organic agriculture, in addition to the protection of the environment, health and the landscape, is now almost the only hope of redemption for that patrol of small and medium-sized local farmers who want to believe in their work.
And forgetting that all this depends on the conscience and knowledge and on the responsibility of the final consumer citizen. Knowledge that leads to entering into the merits of the mechanisms behind the production of food, or even simply to dealing with their origin.
Conscience and responsibility so as not to be carried away by the race for the “lowest price” always and in any case, forgetting that this is the basis of serious market distortions in terms of quality, transparency and health, and on the mechanisms of “global” trade, which move wealth around the world, impoverishing the places of production.
How can we not think that certain prices for the production of citrus fruits, rather than olives, are not justified by “black” work and by no attention to the environment?
The organic “market” started a few decades ago, in Padua and Veneto in a particular way; based on the recovery, enhancement and development of the remaining local production, and on a strong relationship of trust with the end user. The operators of that time, whether they were producers, transformers or commercial distributors, could only be highly specialized in the sector.
Due to objective conditions of environmental degradation, this demand could only grow, as it has been growing, for 25 years now. Here then comes conventional, Italian and foreign trade, motivated not so much by an ethical and environmental analysis, but by the need to cover a “segment” of the market, replacing conventional supply with organic, but without changing anything in terms of relations between the economic parties.
So the consumer is asked for a higher price, motivated by a presumed higher quality, while the producer is struggling to recognize the production costs, in the presence of a greater supply.
Increased supply, also motivated by the progressive rarefaction of market opportunities for conventional Italian agriculture, which, by choice or desperation, seeks new paths.
So here is that the conventional wholesaler, of fruit and vegetables rather than anything else, puts together his “organic line”, alongside the conventional one, entering like an angry elephant into a market of people who have made organic their only reason for living and business.
To this, add that the Ministry for Agriculture has established since its origins (1992) a Control System entrusted to private individuals, with very different legal forms and a different relationship with the values underlying organic products; based on payment by controlled operators, with always a higher level of mandatory bureaucratic and “paper” burdens.
A very complex system, which, in addition to the product, must control the production process.
It is enough, as in the case of today, for a cog in this system to lend itself to fraud to risk undermining its credibility.
So investigations, checks, arrests, sanctions and convictions are welcome (we hope), with the contribution of the organic Control Bodies themselves, as in this case.
They serve to protect those who actually make organic produce and the consumer who supports it.
Padua, December 7, 2011
Franco Zecchinato - El Tamiso Agricultural Cooperative - Padua
To date, it seems to be understood that the quantities initially subject to fraud are reduced, but this does not detract from the seriousness of the inclusion in “our” supply chains of non-organic products, in particular the cereals that feed the complex sector of baking and the like, or in the livestock sector, whose products still arrive on our tables.
The bewilderment then grows when our Ministry of Agriculture does not believe that it should be the first interlocutor with other European States, and FederBio must replace this role.
Ministry that is also primarily responsible for the role and constraints attributed to the Control Bodies, which are obviously not yet in the right conditions for the social demand for guarantee and impartiality, even if thinking that they are “all the same” is always a mistake.
For the simple reason that this way you make them all the same!
On prices: too many times we hear the good faith of those who buy in the presence of certificates in place, and of “zero residue” productions; but when you buy at prices lower than the fair remuneration of those who produce you can no longer define yourself in good faith, quite the contrary!
It is the best alibi to favor the “fake” organic and to shut down those who really do it.
The following is our press release:
ORGANIC FRAUD — OPERATION “PUSS IN BOOTS” BY THE GdF OF VERONA
WHAT LOCAL ORGANIC PRODUCERS THINK ABOUT IT
The Guardia di Finanza, during the complex “Puss in Boots” operation, has recently seized thousands of quintals of counterfeit/organic cereals, for an estimated value of hundreds of millions of euros.
22 companies were involved (in particular grain wholesalers); the investigations started with the Sunnyland company, whose turnover in 2007 had increased fivefold, putting the Guardia di Finanza on who lives.
The products involved are cereals and grains mainly for livestock use (soybeans, corn), but also floured for human consumption and, even if it does not seem related to the main line of research, fruit and vegetables. Those arrested are three people from Verona (Caterina Albiero from Bioagri sas, Luigi Marinucci, Davide Scapini from Sunnyland), two from Puglia (Angela Siena, Michele Grossi), one from the Marche region (Stefano Spadini) and one from Ferrara (Andrea Grassi).
This has rightly had a wide echo in the media, it has alarmed public opinion and those like us who have been engaged for decades in the difficult business of producing and marketing organic products.
And who knows how many people today are pleased to think “did you see that...? I was saying it!” , a consequence of an attitude that has always been skeptical about the credibility, seriousness and quality of organic production. To the point of never wanting to know more about the actual warranty conditions, unique in their kind, that govern the system.
Without considering that the practice of organic agriculture, in addition to the protection of the environment, health and the landscape, is now almost the only hope of redemption for that patrol of small and medium-sized local farmers who want to believe in their work.
And forgetting that all this depends on the conscience and knowledge and on the responsibility of the final consumer citizen. Knowledge that leads to entering into the merits of the mechanisms behind the production of food, or even simply to dealing with their origin.
Conscience and responsibility so as not to be carried away by the race for the “lowest price” always and in any case, forgetting that this is the basis of serious market distortions in terms of quality, transparency and health, and on the mechanisms of “global” trade, which move wealth around the world, impoverishing the places of production.
How can we not think that certain prices for the production of citrus fruits, rather than olives, are not justified by “black” work and by no attention to the environment?
The organic “market” started a few decades ago, in Padua and Veneto in a particular way; based on the recovery, enhancement and development of the remaining local production, and on a strong relationship of trust with the end user. The operators of that time, whether they were producers, transformers or commercial distributors, could only be highly specialized in the sector.
Due to objective conditions of environmental degradation, this demand could only grow, as it has been growing, for 25 years now. Here then comes conventional, Italian and foreign trade, motivated not so much by an ethical and environmental analysis, but by the need to cover a “segment” of the market, replacing conventional supply with organic, but without changing anything in terms of relations between the economic parties.
So the consumer is asked for a higher price, motivated by a presumed higher quality, while the producer is struggling to recognize the production costs, in the presence of a greater supply.
Increased supply, also motivated by the progressive rarefaction of market opportunities for conventional Italian agriculture, which, by choice or desperation, seeks new paths.
So here is that the conventional wholesaler, of fruit and vegetables rather than anything else, puts together his “organic line”, alongside the conventional one, entering like an angry elephant into a market of people who have made organic their only reason for living and business.
To this, add that the Ministry for Agriculture has established since its origins (1992) a Control System entrusted to private individuals, with very different legal forms and a different relationship with the values underlying organic products; based on payment by controlled operators, with always a higher level of mandatory bureaucratic and “paper” burdens.
A very complex system, which, in addition to the product, must control the production process.
It is enough, as in the case of today, for a cog in this system to lend itself to fraud to risk undermining its credibility.
So investigations, checks, arrests, sanctions and convictions are welcome (we hope), with the contribution of the organic Control Bodies themselves, as in this case.
They serve to protect those who actually make organic produce and the consumer who supports it.
Padua, December 7, 2011
Franco Zecchinato - El Tamiso Agricultural Cooperative - Padua
To date, it seems to be understood that the quantities initially subject to fraud are reduced, but this does not detract from the seriousness of the inclusion in “our” supply chains of non-organic products, in particular the cereals that feed the complex sector of baking and the like, or in the livestock sector, whose products still arrive on our tables.
The bewilderment then grows when our Ministry of Agriculture does not believe that it should be the first interlocutor with other European States, and FederBio must replace this role.
Ministry that is also primarily responsible for the role and constraints attributed to the Control Bodies, which are obviously not yet in the right conditions for the social demand for guarantee and impartiality, even if thinking that they are “all the same” is always a mistake.
For the simple reason that this way you make them all the same!
On prices: too many times we hear the good faith of those who buy in the presence of certificates in place, and of “zero residue” productions; but when you buy at prices lower than the fair remuneration of those who produce you can no longer define yourself in good faith, quite the contrary!
It is the best alibi to favor the “fake” organic and to shut down those who really do it.
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