Global Organic standards

Organic standards are sets of requirements that describe what practices can be considered organic. Typically, organic standards address various aspects of organic production, namely:

• General farm production requirements and conversion periods.
• Crop production requirements and requirements for the collection of wild products.
• Animal production requirements (including bee-keeping).
• Processing and handling requirements.
• Social justice requirements, and
• Labeling requirements.

The requirements commonly found in organic standards are in the Common Objectives and Requirements of Organic Standards (COROS) -

However, not all organic standards cover all of those areas, e.g. some organic standards do not cover animal production, or address social justice. Some organic standards cover additional or more detailed areas, such as aquaculture, or mushroom production. The IFOAM Standard is an example of a standard covering all of the above areas.

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