Critical Overview on Organic Legislation for Animal Production: Towards Conventionalization of the System?

Adoption of organic animal production legislation, particularly at the Community level, is done with a spirit of compromise and an attempt to reach consensus. In this sense, legal tools are used to solve technical problems so that an appreciable number of derogations (exceptions) are introduced. These may allow the use of certain feed additives, tethered animals or even application of castration. However, derogations should be avoided in legislation where harmonization is pursued, since they bring about distortion in the marketing of organic products. The validity of these derogations has expiry dates. However, at least the EU was hesitant to proceed with the necessary amendments to lift these derogations so that eliminate ambiguities and block loopholes. In turn, mention is made to geographical issues raised from the exceptions question posed again with the new EU Regulations. Furthermore some thoughts are expressed concerning the relationship between setting standards and the crucial role of values in agriculture, organic in particular, social aspects and pursued policy. Finally, the essential feature of this work is that derogations in legislation inevitably lead to conventionalization of organic animal production, which necessitates the clear definition of organic. To substantiate this, relevant arguments are put forward.