Family organic farms as an alternative to agricultural holdings. Organic in Russia: organic products and farming Organic farm
ECOCERT is the main French certification body. To date, the ECOCERT certificate has international status and is recognized in more than 80 countries around the world, guaranteeing the natural origin and environmental friendliness of products.
COSMEBIO is the leading association in the natural and organic cosmetics industry, founded in 2002. Unites more than 350 participants in France and other countries. Among them are cosmetic laboratories, distributors, manufacturers and suppliers of raw materials for cosmetics.
BDIH (Bund deutscher Industrie- und Handelsunternehmen - Federal Association of Industrial and Commercial Companies) is a German association of industrial enterprises and trading companies producing pharmaceutical, medical, cosmetic products. Founded in 1952, BDIH is headquartered in Mannheim (Germany), the association includes over 500 cosmetics manufacturers. In 1996, together with leading manufacturers of eco-cosmetics, BDIH developed a set of standards for the certification of natural cosmetics.
Soil Association (Soil Association) is an organization established in 1946 in the UK, is one of the most influential organizations in the field of certification of food and cosmetic products. It was this association that first introduced the definition of "organic cosmetics".
Requirements for certified cosmetics
To obtain Soil Association Certification organic certification, the company producing cosmetics, must:
1. Conduct an annual inspection of production facilities for compliance with the certification of the Soil Association. This is to ensure that environmentally friendly production methods are used.
2. Design all product formulas and packaging in accordance with SA Certification requirements.
3. Provide clear labeling of ingredients so that the consumer can make an informed choice of product.
4. For any non-organic component, provide a declaration from the supplier that it is not a genetically modified component, as well as three declarations from suppliers about the origin and quality of ingredients that cannot be obtained organically.
5. Use as many organic ingredients as possible. A Soil Association labeled organic product must contain at least 95% organic ingredients. In cases where a product contains more than 70% organic ingredients, it can still be certified by the Soil Association, but the manufacturing company supplying the product to the natural cosmetics store must indicate on the package what percentage of the ingredients is organic.
6. Use a minimum of inorganic additives and only those that are on the Soil Association list of permitted ingredients.
7. Use ingredients that, if processed, are only environmentally friendly.
8. Do not include nanoparticles in the product composition.
French certification agency with international recognition, founded in 1991. In 2002, Ecocert standards for cosmetics were created. It is currently the largest certification agency for natural and organic cosmetics in Europe. Ecocert as a certification body can certify individual ingredients or the product as a whole. Only if the packaging has the standard Ecocert badge can the entire product be considered certified. In another case, the manufacturer used only ingredients certified by Ecocert, and the product itself was not certified. Ecocert certifies cosmetics according to two standards: Ecological/Natural Cosmetics and Organic Cosmetics.
COSMOS Standard is a non-profit association that was established in 2010 by leading European certification organizations. The founders of COSMOS-Standard were BDIH (Germany), Cosmebio and Ecocert (France), Soil Association (England) and ICEA (Italy). This association has developed the international standard for natural and organic cosmetics COSMOS-standard, which combines European certification schemes into one common standard. This is the most demanding and uniform quality standard for organic and natural cosmetics throughout Europe. In addition to the basic principles, in COSMOS it is important not only how the product was obtained, but also how it will decompose in nature, what intermediate stages were used in its preparation. On the product packaging, you will see the inscription COSMOS ORGANIC or COSMOS NATURAL in combination with the sign of the member of the COSMOS-standard AISBL association that certified the product.
The Ecological Certification Institute is the main certifying organization in Italy. ICEA brings together 300 accredited experts, more than 13,000 organizations involved in the production of natural and environmentally friendly products, and has branches around the world. Together with the Association of Organic Agriculture, they developed standards for organic cosmetics, and today they provide certification services for harmless, natural cosmetics around the world.
Initially, this certificate was created for food industry products, but then it was extended to other industries: natural cosmetics, green building and textile products, personal care products, household chemicals, furniture and components for it. ICEA also accredits bio beauty salons.
Due to its harsh climate, Siberia is fraught with unique plants for beauty and health, often characteristic only of this region. In order to survive in the fifty-degree frost and withstand the strongest winds, Siberian herbs and plants synthesize protective active ingredients and have amazing antioxidant properties. At our company, we hold sacred the technique of harvesting wild herbs. At correct collection most herbs and plants reproduce to an even greater extent. It is extremely important to collect herbs of a certain age, size and at the moment of the highest concentration of key elements for beauty and health. That is why all the wild herbs of Siberia are hand-picked by the locals.
We often hear: "they are for the elect." Or “The world will not be fed by your ecological farmers anyway.” Or “All these are environmental games. You can't survive without big corporations." Or “Farmers can produce little and expensively, but they need a lot and cheaply - only large farms can do this”
And all the other stuff about how, at best, farm-fresh food is something for a small circle of buyers..
“If we want, and the whole Earth, there is no other way out than to switch to organic, created by small farms that are resistant to financial and other cataclysms,” says Boris Akimov, founder of the LavkaLavka farm store.
“Organic farming is real opportunity feed the entire planet with clean food and honest food." says Helena Bollesen, Danish ecologist, author of a number of books on healthy eating, farmers and responsible environment. And lectures on the subject. 
Helena has been living and working in Russia for 10 years. She became a real conductor between the culinary traditions of the two countries. Helen knows everything about how the Scandinavian experience of the revival of national gastronomy can be useful for Russian cuisine, and ours, and - is useful in Europe.
Why did Denmark begin to eat
Denmark in the mid-90s talked a lot about healthy eating, but the turning point for her and for me personally was 1994. That year there was a sharp decline in prices, and so it happened, at the same time a small group of scientists published the results of their national study, which said that the sperm of the Danish farmer is much better than that of the average resident of the country. The news of this hit all the newspapers along with articles about a sharp drop in food prices. Since that day, sales of organic products have increased every year in Denmark.
But the fact that foods grown without artificial fertilizers and pesticides are healthier has never been scientifically proven. There are the results of the study - it, excuse me, is all about the same thing. In Switzerland, a bovine semen collection center found that its quality was much higher in winter than at other times of the year. And the point is most likely that in winter the bulls are fed with dried grass from the mountains, in the growth of which, accordingly, chemical fertilizers did not take part.
Helena Bolessen's new book, To be or not to be 
We can draw any conclusions, but we cannot prove anything. And we certainly cannot make people fall in love with organic products, arguing their benefits by the increased fertility of rabbits. The food industry has lost control of what it does since the days when Europe was starving. Using any means to feed it, the big industrial companies have set up the process, and now they are afraid of the new generation, considering us - which, of course, is ridiculous - revolutionaries. And most of all revolutions are feared in Russia.
And what is happening with us?
As you know, in Russia now many who wish are given
There are more than 200 producers of organic products in Ukraine. We decided to compile a list of the 20 most interesting of them.
April 25 in Kyiv, on the street. Mechnikova 9 in the Good Wine store will host "Farmer's Day" - a meeting of Ukrainian producers of natural products. Here you will be able to communicate live with people who create environmentally friendly products.
So, the 20 most interesting manufacturers of natural products (actually, there were a little more of them) and we will start with perhaps the smallest and least known:
Eco-farm Motherfarm is located near Kyiv in the village of Malye Lesovtsy.
The idea of our farm "Motherfarm" developed gradually, from little house in the village. At first, there was a desire to provide only my family with natural products, because many of the products that you can buy in supermarkets are products of the chemical industry. But then other people, mostly friends, began to ask to cook for them. Then, friends of friends, etc. Thus the farm was born. Some friends started joining to work together on this project.
Today, the Motherfarm farm produces: milk, cottage cheese, sour cream, butter and cheeses.
Leleka - organic eggs
Ilya Anosov, the founder of the eco-farm, has long been convinced in organic farming, under the influence of such authors as Faulkner, Fukuoka, Maltsev, Ovsinsky.“Despite the fact that, for example, Ovsinsky wrote things that were logical and understandable to every person 100 years ago, the practices of organic farming still do not use much,” Ilya believes.
The Leleka-92 farm is organized in such a way that it is close to natural ecosystems: neither mineral fertilizers nor pesticides have been used here for more than seven years. Due to the fact that deep plowing is not practiced, live bacteria and worms are preserved, which are the source of natural tillage. The bird is kept in free-range conditions, that is, it is not in cages and does not have forced feeding. When growing them, antibiotics, hormones and drugs of inorganic origin are prohibited. Under these conditions, the bird develops and maintains natural immunity.
There is an organic farm "Leleka-92" in the village. New Liman, Kharkiv region.
Caring for the health of their own family prompted Olga and Nazar Romaniv to launch a line of direct-pressed natural juices, which ensures the maximum preservation of all vitamins. There were all the prerequisites for this - Nazar's parents 10 years ago began planting apple orchards in the very center of the Carpathian region.
“Our mission is to produce a 100% natural, ecological Ukrainian product, grown with love on the fertile Carpathian land, so that our consumers can consume juicy and environmentally friendly apples and natural fresh juice with pride and pleasure. We want the “made in Ukraine” brand to take pride of place in the hearts and on the tables of real Ukrainians... healthy image life and consumption of only natural products is our philosophy, which we strive to convey to our consumers,” says Nazar Romaniv.
This farm was created as a family business producing exclusively organic food. It could not be otherwise, because initially it was about the health of the child. It so happened that the couple of Andrei and Victoria often had a daughter, Ksenia, who even had to move to Germany for a while. There doctors advised to give Special attention healthy eating Xenia.
As a result, a lawyer dad and a linguist mom bought a former collective farm in the Zhytomyr region and for the sake of their daughter they took up agriculture - crop production and animal husbandry.
Today, Polesie-Invest is the first company in Ukraine that has been certified for organic animal husbandry, 100% provided with its own feed, also certified as organic. Basically, ducks, geese, turkeys, sheep, guinea fowl and pheasants are grown on the farm.
To start his eco-farm, Pavel Tizesh bought out an old, dilapidated building where tobacco used to be dried. In the building, which was 110 years old, only adobe walls remained. Today, here is the first museum of a lekvar in Ukraine and a tasting room.
His farming is located in the vicinity of Rakhiv, Yasin.
The farm processes plums, blueberries, cranberries, wild raspberries, strawberries, dogwood, apples, red currants, chokeberry. Lekvar, juices and syrups are made from them. 5 people work at the production site, including Pavel Pavlovich himself. Under the brand name "Pan Eco" today 15 types of bio-products are produced with an organic certificate EuroLeaf.
Growing white and green asparagus has become a private project of the Boden family in the village of Lyubimovka. Johan Boden loved to cook, and his wife Larisa liked to grow. And about eight years ago, she felt that it was time to grow asparagus. Her husband often brought her from trips to Holland in the spring, but it was expensive and the taste of asparagus was lost due to the long transportation without refrigeration. They were helped in the beginning of the project by the German Falk Nebiger, a restaurateur-entrepreneur and his father, who knew how to grow asparagus.
The farm is located in Kakhovka, Kherson region.
Vyacheslav Tsuprikov, the founder of the Gogolmed organization, produces honey in the Orzhitsky district of the Poltava region, one of the few places in Ukraine that is practically not affected by industrial production.
The main philosophy is a humane attitude towards bees.
The total area of forests, meadows and swamps is 2000 ha. Lindens, acacias, chestnuts, oaks grow here, which provide support for wild bee populations. Creating and maintaining safe conditions for the life of bees helps to increase the number of their colonies, and thus contributes to their salvation.
The bees collect nectar wild plants meadows and forests or on agricultural fields where applied organic farming. The bees are not subjected to the stress associated with transporting hives, which is often practiced by other beekeepers. The bees are left with 75% of the honey they make, so sugar is never used for feeding.
“Our honey is the best in Ukraine!” - the participants of the public ecological organization “Gogolmed. Save the bees - save the world!
In terms of quality, it is not inferior, but somewhere superior to Bashkir honey, New Zealand Manuka honey and Israeli Life Mel Honey, which are considered to be the best in the world.
Apiary Leonik Kolomiets
The beekeeper Leonid Kolomiets, in whose family grandfather and father were famous beekeepers and beekeepers in the Khmelnitsky region, began to do what he loved from childhood.Together with his wife Lyudmila and son, he produces beekeeping products and has an apiary, which has more than fifty hives. At the same time, they travel through the most honey-bearing territories of the Carpathians, and these are local fields, meadows and forests.
The owner knows almost everything about bees and their product (pollen, propolis, dead bees, wax moth) and openly shares his professional achievements as a beekeeper.
The apiary is located in the town of Tysmenitsa, Ivano-Frankivsk region, and has about fifty beehives.
And what other organic farms and producers of natural products in Ukraine would you include in this list? Write in the comments.
The term "organic farming" seems very trendy and ultra-modern, but behind it are quite old farming methods that mankind used in the pre-industrial era. By by and large, organic farming is a greener alternative to industrial agriculture, which is intensely environmentally oppressive.
What is organic agriculture?
The term "organic agriculture" or organic farming and animal husbandry is commonly understood as such methods of obtaining agricultural products, in which the use of artificial (synthetic) preparations - fertilizers, pesticides, growth stimulants, feed additives, etc. is purposefully minimized. As far as possible, they are replaced with natural analogues of manure, green manure, etc. Also, crop rotations and crop rotation are more actively used to increase productivity. special methods soil processing.
There are two main goals pursued by proponents of organic farming. Firstly, food products obtained in this way are more useful and completely safe for human health, which cannot always be said about the products of industrial farming and animal husbandry.
Secondly, organic farming causes minimal harm to the environment. Ideally, there should be no negative effect at all, but the fundamental feasibility of this is still doubtful. This goal is no less important, because in the end it also succeeds in protecting the health of people, and of all, and not just those who eat organic products.
In fact, organic production in agriculture seeks to adapt the need of mankind for artificially grown food to the laws of nature, to make this industry part of the ecosystem. In this sense, industrial agriculture is on the opposite side of the scale, where attempts are being made to transform nature and subordinate it to the need to produce as much food as possible, often to the detriment of both nature and people themselves.
The goals pursued by the supporters of organic farming and animal husbandry also determine the set of methods with which they have to operate. By and large, this is traditional agriculture, as it was a century ago, but only improved by modern knowledge about the laws of nature and modern agricultural equipment.
All methods are based on the principle of biological synergy:
- rejection of synthetic plant protection products, use of existing biological analogues;
- the use of organic compounds in agriculture (manure, plant residues, etc.) as fertilizers;
- strict adherence to crop rotation to control weeds, pests and to restore soil fertility;
- the company operates on a closed cycle of farming and animal husbandry (crop production provides animal feed, animals provide fertilizer for the fields).
Although fast-dissolving synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are banned, in rare cases where there is a high risk of yield loss and biological methods fail, occasional chemical applications are allowed.
Organic animal husbandry, in addition to the rejection of synthetic food additives, stimulants and hormones, also provides for keeping animals in conditions close to their natural way of life. This, for example, means that during the summer period cattle must certainly graze on natural pastures, and year-round stall keeping is not allowed.
The International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movement (IFOAM) declares four basic principles on which the whole concept of organic farming and animal husbandry is based. In addition, these principles are embedded in the standards of European legislation governing the market for organic products.
The basic principles of organic agriculture in general are based on two main goals, which have already been mentioned at the beginning. This short list includes:
Profitability of organic farming
The weak point of organic agriculture, which is why most farmers refrain from switching to this method of production, is the significantly higher cost of production compared to industrial agriculture. For most farmers, the ideological component alone is not enough for them to decide to go into organic farming. Profit is still more important for them, and it’s hard to blame them for this, given that agriculture is already difficult to call a highly profitable type of business.
In temperate regions where conventional industrial farming produces the richest yields, the transition to organic farming in agriculture reduces yields by 10-50%. Of course, much depends on the specific crop and the technologies used before, but in any case, the drop in yield is quite noticeable. At the same time, over time (for 3-5 years), as the farmer accumulates experience in working in new conditions, the yield is partially restored, but still does not reach the previous indicators.
In addition to lower production volume, profitability is also affected by higher labor costs. Some operations that were previously easily accomplished through the abundant use of herbicides and pesticides, the farmer now has to entrust his workers to do everything by hand.
The full-cycle nature of organic agriculture partly allows minimizing costs. The correct approach here provides for non-waste production in the presence of both crop and livestock activities. Crop waste is used as animal feed and bedding, which in turn provide fertilizer to the fields.
And yet, while the cost of organic products remains higher, which means that the retail price for it is also higher. In the rich Western countries where the population does not save on food, people who are concerned about their health are ready to pay more for healthy foods. Accordingly, even losing in price, those farmers who use only organic compounds in agriculture still find their buyer in Europe and America, occupying a significant market share there.
In Russia, where the majority of the population buys food products, focusing primarily on their cost, and not on quality, the market niche for organic producers is extremely small. In fact, a sufficient number of buyers who are willing to pay more for healthier food are available only in Moscow, St. Petersburg and some other large cities.
Thus, we can safely say that without significant support from the state, the production of organic products in Russia will develop at an extremely low pace in the coming years. And with recent economic turmoil, there is likely to even be a pullback as the already small market shrinks.
Law on organic agriculture in Russia
In addition to the already indicated economic component, due to which organic products do not find mass demand in Russia today, certain difficulties also arise due to a lack of understanding of the problem by the majority of the population, as well as due to the lack of a law on organic agriculture in Russia.
For the most part, Russians do not share the concerns of many Europeans about food safety. Our people are used to being wary of canned and other highly processed foods, but for some reason, fresh fruits and vegetables are by default perceived by the majority as completely safe and healthy food.
Due to the fact that an ordinary city dweller has a very vague idea of how many different chemicals are used at different stages of growing the same tomatoes and apples, he simply does not see a fundamental difference between conventional and organic products. Moreover, ordinary fruits / vegetables often look prettier and always cost less, and therefore they attract the attention of an ordinary buyer who does not understand and often does not want to understand the underlying cause of this difference.
It cannot be said that the emergence of a law on organic agriculture could radically change the situation in the food market. However, the fact that its absence is definitely not in favor of organic producers. Today in our country there are three standards for such products, but the need for a full-fledged law is still felt, since it is he who could create uniform rules for all organic producers. And already on the basis of this, one could talk about plans to popularize natural products among consumers.
The village of Stavotino is located in the Luzhsky district of the Leningrad region, 200 km southwest of St. Petersburg, surrounded by picturesque lakes and forests.
Full description
Our small farm is surrounded by rich forests, where you can pick mushrooms and berries in summer. Numerous lakes are a great place to relax. Fishing enthusiasts will also find something to do. There is an opportunity to learn more about the Russian hinterland - we organize excursions to the historical places of the region. I first learned about biodynamic farms from my friends from Germany. It was in 1994 on the Bodensee. I remembered a typical idea of farms from the times of collective farms - unwashed cows roam, for some reason mudslides, half-dead tractors, men in sweatshirts scurry around the farm back and forth. And somehow everything is unrelated. The landscape is very dull. Here, everything was different. The cows were grazing peacefully in the pasture, some already in a lying position, chewing grass for the umpteenth time, being in the most wonderful mood. People, cows, land - the landscape of the village was a unity! Everything was connected by some invisible thread. They gave me a sample of vegetables grown on this farm, and they were very tasty. As in childhood. And this taste and quality was obtained due to the cultivation of the land medicinal herbs(chamomile, dandelion, yarrow) somehow cooked in a special way. Now, after 19 years of volunteer work on the ground, after a large number seminars on Biodynamics in our village of Stavotino, I also learned how to work the land and plants myself. I learned how to grow such healthy vegetables! All these years, schoolchildren from different cities of Russia came to us for practice. Over the years, we have bought 5 hectares of land, built a bathhouse, guest houses. The administration of the Osminsky rural settlement gave us a rural club for free rent, where we could conduct classes. Together with my husband Nikolai, we worked as volunteers in the NGO "Biodinamika". We want to move forward, have cattle, grow more vegetables. And we need volunteers! You can get there by train, bus, taxi. There are all conditions for life and fruitful work - house, sauna, water, electricity. We see people without bad habits, hardworking, with experience of working on the ground.
Who is needed
The male
Woman
15 - 55 years old
Language skills
Russian English Deutsch
Additional Information
We see people without bad habits, hardworking, with experience of working on the ground. We have a T-25 tractor with attachments. What to do? For 20 years we have been growing vegetables organically, without the use of chemicals. These products are in high demand right now! We need strong hands to continue this work. We also invite volunteers to help with the work. Conditions, details are discussed according to the situation.
What to do
home economics
Social work
decoration
Gardening
Cooking
Art
Driving
Agriculture