Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 14.2 IFOAM Basic Standards, chapter 8 on social
justice (from IFOAM 2002)
General Principle
Social justice and social rights are an integral part of organic agriculture and processing.
Standards shall require that:
8.1
Operators shall have a policy on justice. Operators who hire fewer than ten (10)
persons for labour and those who operate under a state system that enforces social
laws may not be required to have such a policy.
8.2
In cases where production is based on violation of basic human rights and clear
cases of social injustice, that product cannot be declared as organic.
8.3
Standards shall require that operators not use forced or involuntary labour.
8.4
Employees and contractors of organic operations have the freedom to associate, the
right to organise and to bargain collectively.
8.5
Operators shall provide their employees equal opportunity and treatment, and shall
not act in a discriminatory way.
8.6
Children employed by organic operators shall be provided with educational
opportunities.
Network of the Rainforest Alliance (SAN), and the ILO. All IOAS-accredited certification
bodies are expected to develop their own social standards based on these broad IFOAM stand-
ards for standards. Some private organic standards (IOAS accredited or not) already incorpo-
rate social standards into their certification. Often producer associations or cooperatives in
developing countries are subject to social certification via fair trade in addition to their organic
certification (SASA 2005).
Collaboration
Collaboration as discussed here refers to the engagement of multiple stakeholders with each
other in the organic sector covering the entire supply chain to better address social justice
issues. In Table 14.1, the middle column tends to refer to economic and market approaches.
Collaboration is included because in addition to being an approach to (social) learning (see
Box 14.3), collaboration is also very strategic and has potential cost-cutting and other economic
benefits. In this way collaboration can be regarded as a 'rational choice' approach towards
social responsibility.
At least two kinds of collaboration can be distinguished: collaboration among social and
environmental certification organisations, and collaboration throughout the supply chain.
The former refers to those in the organic sector working with experts in social certification. In
this example of collaboration, the intent is not to develop comprehensive social criteria, but
rather that the organic sector works with other certification systems that specialise in social
issues. The second kind of collaboration refers to coordination throughout the supply chain
and as such, is closely linked to the first. In order to ensure that social standards are upheld
along the supply chain, coordination is required. An example is the complex organic cotton
supply chain that involves among others: producers, ginners, spinners, dyers, exporters, cut/
make/trim operators, designers and retailers. Each step holds different ecological and social
challenges and demands different skills to adequately address the risks.
Collaboration with organisations more experienced in social certification is a wise and
vibrant endeavour for IFOAM. IFOAM, via the International Social and Environmental
Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance, has a platform to generate and learn from such
