Organic food standardisation: What are the possibilities of convergence with conventional food production?

The growth in recent years of demand for organic foods stimulated the quest to create a uniform, national framework to regulate the manufacture and sale of organic products in Australia. In this article, we look at the new standard for domestically produced organic foods as well as the separate export/import standard. This article examines the prescriptions for food to be ‘organic’ and considers in what circumstances there can be a loosening in strictness of organic production standards. One aspect to consider is whether all or only some organic foods can demonstrate superiority over their equivalent in conventional food, and whether there may be a convergence in some categories. Clearly the marketing of organic food as a premium sub-category creates opportunity for growth of the organic category in conventional supermarket retailing. Will current laws be adequate?

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