Organic agriculture is a sustainable agricultural system capable of addressing environmental problems and issues, contributing to Australia’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and providing a possible blueprint for transitioning to more sustainable food systems.
Organic standards and certification were developed 40 years ago to provide quality assurance to consumers and ensure that production criteria have been met and the principles and sustainability aims of organic agriculture are being achieved. Effective governance arrangements for organic certification were critical to achieving the aims of organic agriculture; however, there is uncertainty around the governance of organic standards and certification as currently prepared, legislated and managed.
This research provided the first comprehensive evaluation of the fitness-for-purpose of Australian organic sector governance. It utilised available literature and insights from key figures who were engaged in the history of Australian organic certification. It considered commonly agreed definitions applied by governance professional organisations and the views of key international organic industry commentators, including accuracy, compliance, verifiability, consultation, impartiality, confidentiality, transparency and openness, and efficient and equitable administration.
The overall aim of the study was to document and analyse the history of Australian organic governance, identify the perspectives of key stakeholders and make recommendations for improving the governance of certification in organic agriculture.
The overarching research question of the study was: Is the governance of organic standards and certification in Australia working effectively? Research sub-questions considered the history of organic standards and certification and how this has impacted the current context; how the governance of organic standards and certification in Australia conforms to the ethical values of the organic sector and the principles that have emerged from one hundred years of “the organic movement” and have shaped the international development of organic standards since they first arose (the ethical values embodied in the IFOAM Principles and widely shared in the organic sector); whether the expectations of organic operators (producers, processors, and marketers), consumers and government regulators are compatible; how conflicts might be managed consistent with the ethical values of the organic sector and the IFOAM Principles; and the adequacy of governance arrangements to meet the current challenges and deliver the expectations of customers and sustainability goals.
A case study methodology was used to investigate organic governance and certification in a real-life context. Methods included archival research to explore records of Australian organic standards from origin until the present, chronology based on the archival research to establish the historical record and timeline, key informant interviews to understand the experiences of actors who participated in and shaped the Australian organic industry and its governance and autoethnographic perspectives because the researcher has been actively involved in the field since the first organic Australian certification organisation was inaugurated.
The study developed multiple recommendations for future governance to achieve four main objectives: industry-led regulation, improvements to the standard, better integrity measures consistent with the IFOAM Principles and promoting organic agriculture as the best system to resolve the tension between commercial agriculture and sustainability and biodiversity.