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How PGS works ?

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Référentiels de Nature & Progrès

15 Cahiers des charges

Révision périodique par une commission d’adhérents professionnels,

animation par un salarié de la fédération puis validation en Conseil Fédéral →Fonctionnement participatif

Niveau de référence défini collectivement

Charte Nature & Progrès

Objectifs écologiques et sociaux sur lesquels les adhérents s’engagent à mener

une réflexion.

Règlement d’utilisation de la marque – Charte Graphique

Guide d’évaluation, règles d’étiquetage, principales procédures

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Case study N&P

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Example: Nature & Progrès

• Born in 1964 (Organic pioneers)

• Today active in almost all French departments

• An associative Charter

• 15 standards (vegetables, wine, cosmetic, beekeeping, etc..)

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Nature & Progrès

• has nearly 2000 members including more than 900 certified producers and processors

• Why a PGS: organic regulation is not enough

—> best practices, refusing dependency from EU subsidies

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Nature & Progrès organigram

FederalCOMAC

BOARD

Federal Council

Local groups and COMAC

Local groups send representative to tthe Federal Council

TechnicalCommitee

SupervisionDelegation

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Organizing the Farm Review

Delegates

Currentmanagement

1) Application

2) Ask the local

COMAC to perform the assessment

3) Organise the Farm visit

4) Farm visit

Local COMAC

Paid staff of the Federal COMAC

Team producer-consumer Federal

COMAC

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Certification

7) Issuance of the certificate and right to use the label N&P

6 ) Issuance of an

opinion after studying the farm visit report

5) Farm visit Report

Local COMAC

Federal COMAC

Consultation

Disputes

4) Farm visit

Team producer-consumer

Paid staff of the Federal COMAC

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• Observe and collect the information

• Take notes

• Make an inventory, take photos of the activity

and give as much information as possible to COMAC to evaluate the producers.

• Do not make any judgment,

• Advise and foster exchange

• Assume the position of a neophyte: do not

hesitate to as the producer to explain her/his job

The role of the reviewer

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COMAC : joint local committee of certification and control formed by consumers and producers

The local COMAC

- issues an opinion for the awarding of the Nature & Progrès mark.

- organizes the farm visits schedule all year around,

- organizes the the review team,

- manages PGS documentation and records (membership files, farm visit

reports, history of recommendations, etc.),

- Local COMAC is mandated by the Federal COMAC. They sign a joint agreement.

What is a Local COMAC?

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• A local COMAC is constituted of producers / processors and

consumers who are members of the local group. There are at least six members.

• COMAC Members sign a memorandum of ethic and

confidentiality.

• COMAC has a secretary who takes care of the reports and documents issued by the commission.

• A representative of the local COMAC is appointed to sit at the

Federal COMAC.

• Apart from these criteria, each local group can set up a COMAC according to its necessities.

Who forms the local COMAC?

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Tools supporting the work of the reviewers during the visit:

• N&P standards,

• Farm visit guide,

• Farm visit form : where the peer-reviewers collect the technical

and accounting data obtained during the visit.There might be a form of specific productions (beekeeping,winemaking ...)

• The summary sheet : summarizes the remarks and observations

done during the farm visits. It is signed by the people performingthe visits and the producer /farmer visited.

• The NESO compass (Charter evaluation tool): visually summarize the

management of the farm as a whole (energy, social,environmental aspects, etc.).

Tools

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OriginApproach in choosing

inputs, raw material

and products and the

marketing approach,

proximity, short-value chian

NaturalRespect for

biodiversity,

natural cycles, soil

life, preservation ofnatural resources

EnergyReduction of

energy needs,

energy autonomy,

limit the use of fossil

and polluting energies

SocialScale and type of the

activity, management that privilege relationships and

solidarity, contribute to maintaining a lively rural

of a living rural development

Coherence

Resilience

Current

status

Future prospective

Current

status

Current

status

Current

status Future prospective

Future prospective

Future prospective

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• General Assembly at the beginning of the year (election of

the staff, assessment of the previous campaign, discussions on the organization of the coming year ...)

• New applications

• Appoints the teams for the farm visits

• COMAC meetings (planning the farm visits, signing of the commitment of for ethics and confidentiality)

• Farm reviews

• COMAC Meeting (s) (analysis of farm visit reports, opinion)

• Transfer COMAC opinion reports to the federation

January

February

March

March → October

November

COMAC Calendar

March → October

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Dĕkuji

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3rd party certification in EU N&P PGS

Fundamental principles

Independency, Confidentiality, Impartiality, Segmentation of the decision making

Trust, Shared vision, Horizontality, Learning process, Active participation, Transparency

Who does what?

Guarantee managed by a private company called Certification Body (CB)

The guarantee is managed by a group of producers together with consumers and other stakeholders

On the filed Inspections done by an employee of the CB, on the base of the documentations available (i.e. accounting etc…)

Farm visits are done by the members of the PGS, so other producers (together with consumers) assess the production practices of their peers

Study of the report

The report performed during the inspection is passed to another employee in charge of issuing the certification

The report is orally shared with the local committee in charge of giving an opinion on the final certification

Certification

And Accreditation

CBS are assessed against ISO/IEC 17065 and the control requirements set down in Regulation (EC) 834/2007, and its various implementing regulations, providing the framework for the rules on the production and sale of organic products in Europe including imports. The Organic Unit of the Directorate General Agriculture (DG AGRI) of the EU Commission is the scheme owner.

Recognized by IFOAM - Organics InternationalNo official recognition in Europe

Nature of the service

Market oriented non profit citizen activity

Strong Points Technical expertise, Rapidity, Efficiency Creates meaningful relationships between local actors, participatory approach of improving and finding solutions.

Ownership of the guarantee system stays with the producers and consumers who benefits form the guarantee. Reduced costs. Locally adapted.

Limits No technical support in improving organic practices, no support for producers. Activities are disconnected from the local context. Expensive certification beard by producers

Relies mostly on voluntary work,

Collective process that depends on personal involvement and quality fo human relationships