Organic agriculture is agriculture which grows agricultural produce while taking the values of nature and soil preservation into consideration. Organic agriculture contributes to environmental protection, improving air and water quality and soil improvement and fertility, while refraining from the use of prohibited chemicals and synthetic substances.
This agriculture does not utilize conventional pesticides and fertilizers, and demands great care during all stages of caring for, processing, and transporting the produce.
To conserve the reliability of organic produce and products, there is great importance in inspection of the processing, production, packing and storage processes of this produce.
The official body in Israel, recognized by the European Union is the Plant Protection and Inspection Services (PPIS) at the Ministry of Agriculture.
EEC Regulation No. 2092/91 was instituted by the European Union at the beginning of the 1990s with the goal of regulating the inspection and endorsement processes so as to maintain sustainable organic agriculture, and assure reliable and quality organic produce for the consumer. In this framework, the Plant Protection and Inspection Services were recognized as the authorized body to supervise the organic produce and products intended for export to EU countries.
On 1 September 2008, the Organic Law came into force, which only encompasses all organic foods deriving from plant sources. According to the law, every consumer can search for the uniform organic symbol on the organic products.
Click here for the topic of Standards in Organic Agriculture on the PPIS website.