Providing organic school food for youths in Europe - Policy strategies, certification and supply chain management in Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway

Summary

In the proceedings of an iPOPY seminar, some results of the research project were presented. First of all, Anne-Kristin Løes and Benjamin Nölting give an overview of the iPOPY project and its first results. This outline of the holistic research approach helps locate the challenges of the supply side of POPY, some crucial aspects of which are analyzed in the following papers. Political strategies are highly relevant for changing the “politicized market” of public food procurement. Thorkild Nielsen, Niels Heine Kristensen and Bent Egbert Mikkelsen reflect on whether and how organic food in schools and kindergartens can be described as a part of an ecological modernization strategy in Denmark. They discuss how it has merged with more economically and technically approach in public catering policy. Organic production has to be certified and labeled along the supply chain in order to maintain trust in organic premium products. Since January 1st 2009, organic certification in Europe is subject to the new Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007. This regulation specifically excludes so-called mass catering operations. It is up to EU member states to apply national rules or private standards insofar as these comply with community law. The paper of Carola Strassner presents the state of the art and upcoming changes of organic certification of out-of-home catering in Germany with regard to Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Italy. Finally, supply chains of organic school food have to be organised in a sustainable way in order to serve high quality food to pupils. Stefano Bocchi, Roberto Spigarolo, Marco Valerio Sarti, and Benjamin Nölting present a best practice case of controlled food chains (filiera controllata) from Italy, the European champion of organic school food. From the province and the city of Piacenza in the region of Emilia-Romagna, we can learn a lot about a short and certified organic food-chain, a wide range of regional and organic products provided through a shared logistic organisation among local partners, and specific tender procedures.