Proposed Criteria for Evaluation of Plant Protection Products, Fertilizers and Soil Conditioners Used in Organic Agriculture

Summary

This volume contains proposals for criteria for evaluation of plant protection products, fertilizers and soil conditioners1 to be used in organic agriculture. These ideas were developed in the course of the European Union (EU) Concerted Action project ‘ORGANIC INPUTS EVALUATION’ (QLK5-CT-2002-02565). For more information on this project see the last page of this volume or visit the project website www.organicinputs.org. The present documents were prepared by several working groups of this project, and discussed at a workshop held March 10-11, 2005 in Wageningen, The Netherlands.
The proposals also include a “criteria matrix”, which is in Microsoft Excel format, and therefore stands as a separate file. The criteria matrix is discussed in section 5, but we strongly recommend that you consult the original document. The file can be downloaded from the project website.
To illustrate the use of the matrix, we have further prepared two case studies, which can be downloaded from the same site.
The documents in this volume are proposals elaborated by the consortium and a few external experts. All feedback and comments on these proposals is explicitly invited! To this end, a public conference will be held in Brussels on October 13, 2005. If you wish to comment on these proposals or register for the conference, please visit the project website www.organicinputs.org. Based on the public feedback, the consortium will amend the present proposals in winter 2005/06 and present their final proposals to the European Commission.