New! Participatory Guarantee Systems newsletter

Tags: Small Producers Agency

The market for organic foods is an important opportunity for farmers in developing countries. But how can consumers be assured that what they buy is indeed organic? Certification systems exist to give the answer. Most of these systems are ‘top-down’; they define the conditions that farmers have to comply with and ensure external inspectors do the checking. This increases the costs of the products.

Already some 30 years ago, another quality assurance system started out within the organic movement and next to the official system. This is PGS, the “Participatory Guarantee System”. PGS is defined as locally focused quality assurance that ‘certifies’ producers based on active participation of the producers and other stakeholders. PGS is built on a foundation of trust among producers and between producers and consumers, through social networks and knowledge exchange. Worldwide, there are many cases of PGS working at present.

Because of these successes, IFOAM is now developing a global platform for PGS initiatives. The objective is to better support the local PGS activities through global learning about participatory guarantee systems. A Global PGS Newsletter has been launched recently. It is a free monthly publication of IFOAM. To view the first issue of the newsletter (October 2009), see attachment.

This initiative is financially supported by the Hivos-Oxfam Novib Biodiversity Fund.