Feeding theWorld – The Contribution of IFOAM Principles - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 87

Table 5.2 The IFOAM Principles and food processing
Impact on food processing Specific quantitative impact

Health
Reduce amount of processed food and increase use of
fresh products and with that food quality

Reduction of food energy losses while
food processing

Protect the health (quality) of products by excluding
food additives

Increase of nutrient content

Protect the quality and quantity of products Increase of the share of non-processed

food reducing food waste

Assure healthy products with high nutrient content
through the use of natural products
Ecology
Establish processing that includes full recycling Increase of efficient use of food

Closing energy cycles Increase of recycled nutrients

Exclude of food additives Increase the efficient use of energy

Increase of food safety

Fairness
Assure fair relationships between producer and
processor

Increase of consumable food

Foster the use of processing techniques that allow for
a diversity of forms, sizes and qualities of plants and
animal products

Reduction of food waste

Care
Use processing technology that minimizes product
loss without compromising food quality or quantity

Increase of consumable food

5.4 Food Security and the IFOAM Norms

In this section we introduce how the IFOAM Norms open the space for numerous
opportunities for contributing to improved food security. The construct of IFOAM
Norms (including the Principles, Standards and issues on certification) is the
institution that is steering the status of values for the whole system - for the
standards, control and certification.
The question we would like to explore now is: how are the IFOAM Principles
expressed and embodied in the three key documents of the IFOAM Norms? The
more the three documents embody the Principles, the easier it will be to understand
their contribution to addressing concretely the quantitative dimension of food
security in the organic agrofood chain.
The IFOAM Norms for production and processing define the basis for the
concrete practices by organic movement participants in addition to serving as a
framework for specific national and international (e.g., EU, USDA) guidelines for
production, processing and trade (IFOAM 2012 , pp. 6, 7). These three documents
are (IFOAM 2012 ,p.6):

￿ Common Objectives and Requirements of Organic Standards (COROS) -