15/08/2002 
Another new umbrella organisation founded, a comment by Monika Kleickmann
The Federal Minister of Consumer Protection, Mrs Renate Künast, now has first discussions with the representatives of the new
The sad thing about it is that the organic industry has learned nothing else from the latest food scares but to set up the umbrella organisation of the umbrella organisation. This way, problems cannot be solved! It rather counts that international standards be created and that imports which could so far be declared as
So the problem should be tackled in a far more extensive way by the ministry. At a quick glance, it may inspire the consumers’ confidence if another new organisation, the BÖLW, takes up the cause of controlling food that was produced in an ecological way. Agricultural policy, however, which succeeds in creating uniform standards for the production of food on the European and international levels for conventional- and organic farming would be much more effective.
Mrs Künast, though, is not in the position to do that, because Germany was isolated from an international point of view due to her biased ecological policy. For the German consumer, only one way of consolation is left: the BÖLW with its new, undreamt-of competence in the matter of food control ...
Bund ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft(BÖLW; association for organic food industry). The German associations for organic agriculture as well as the bonds for organic trade and organic food processing now joined together under this umbrella organisation.
The sad thing about it is that the organic industry has learned nothing else from the latest food scares but to set up the umbrella organisation of the umbrella organisation. This way, problems cannot be solved! It rather counts that international standards be created and that imports which could so far be declared as
organic productsbe controlled more intensely. Should, however, German standards alone be raised, it will become ever more interesting for the
black sheepto get round the stringent conditions.
So the problem should be tackled in a far more extensive way by the ministry. At a quick glance, it may inspire the consumers’ confidence if another new organisation, the BÖLW, takes up the cause of controlling food that was produced in an ecological way. Agricultural policy, however, which succeeds in creating uniform standards for the production of food on the European and international levels for conventional- and organic farming would be much more effective.
Mrs Künast, though, is not in the position to do that, because Germany was isolated from an international point of view due to her biased ecological policy. For the German consumer, only one way of consolation is left: the BÖLW with its new, undreamt-of competence in the matter of food control ...
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