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IFOAM - Organics International, the umbrella group for the global organic movement, has released its latest annual report with a message about the common vision forward, Organic 3.0, from its new president, Peggy Miars, who is also CEO of the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI).
"'Unity in diversity,' 'inclusiveness' and 'moving beyond the niche' - these are guiding principles in the day to day decisions we make," Miars writes in her message. "In the future, we don’t want to be measured only by whether organic is trustworthy and complies with standards. We want to be effective in mitigating climate change, in maintaining biodiversity and in improving nutrition for all, particularly smallholder farming families."
Organic 3.0, what IFOAM calls the "next phase of organic development," takes into account the role agriculture plays in the global issues of hunger, inequity, energy consumption, pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity and depletion of natural resources. The group released the final version of its Organic 3.0 document in November 2016.
Miars was elected to lead the Bonn, Germany-based IFOAM, with over 1,000 members from 130 countries, in November. She was one of 10 new board members elected to serve three-year terms until 2020 by its General Assembly at the 19th Organic World Congress in New Delhi, India.
Founded in 1997, Eugene, Ore.-based OMRI is a nonprofit providing independent reviews of materials and processes to determine their suitability for producing, processing and handling food and fiber certified under the standards of the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP). Acceptable products are OMRI Listed and appear on the OMRI Products List or OMRI Canada Products List.
Miars joined OMRI in 2010, just before the group reached a milestone of 2,000 listed products reviewed and verified for use in organics. Since then, staffing has tripled, and the average number of new applications received has grown from 40 applications per month to more than 100. In March, OMRI hit 6,000 OMRI Listed products.
IFOAM's 20th Organic World Congress is scheduled to take place in 2020 in Rennes, France.
