Framework for Re-thinking Ethics in the Organic Movement - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 267

in public and private regulations, and in control and certification procedures. We are
especially concerned with the specific ethical challenges in the certification process
and with the philosophical perspective on the regulatory ethics.

13.2.1.1 The Status of Ethics in the Standards and Regulations

We start this discussion with a perspective on current organic farmers' sensitivity
and awareness of the IFOAM Principles. The current generation of organic farmers,
generally shares a value-based commitment to food quality, environmental protec-
tion, limited resource use, individual health, and independence and sustainability
(Padel 2005 ). But these values tend to focus on largely material issues and qualities,
and less on social issues, such as fairness or care. As our historical review in Chap. 2
shows, social and economic values always played a role in the historical evolution
of the organic movement, but they were expressed differently in each country.
As Jones notes in her historical analysis of values in the organic movement in
Australia (see Chap. 11 ) , values associated with health and environment have also
been dominate in their organic principles since the time of the organic pioneers in
the 1940s. Norwegian studies have shown, that contemporary organic farmers, as
compared to their conventional counterparts, are more likely to have larger farms,
are more educated but also sensitive to the organic health and environmentally
oriented values (Koesling et al. 2008 ). But they are also more business-minded
and pay less attention to the organic ideas that were important for the founders
of organic farming. The advisory service of Bioaustria confirms the dominance of
economic and market issues among the most recent converters, (see Econo/Market
type in Sect. 13.1 ), who pay little attention to social and economic justice issues. 13
These farmers focus on meeting the increasing mass-market demand for organic
products. As such, they are subject to some concerns in society about the integrity
and creditability of organic.
In a comprehensive review of the implementation of the organic principles in the
European Regulation for organic food, Padel and others (Padel et al. 2009 )inaseries
of publications between 2000 and 2009 analyzed the values expressed in the IFOAM
Principles. They found that while labor rights are addressed, the values of fairness,
equity, respect, justice, animal welfare and future generations are not considered in
the standards (Padel et al. 2009 ). They conclude that overall, the standards reflect a
utilitarian approach to organic. Perhaps the broader question is: to what extent can
the certification of environmental indications be used to facilitate acceptance of a
value based agriculture and food system (Niggli 2005 )?
The push to write more uniform organic regulations that the economic interests of
large corporately controlled markets and “industrialized” organic production creates
numerous conflicts with the IFOAM Principles. Mutersbaugh ( 2005 ) argues that
while the growth of the organic market requires regulations, the larger distributors,