Introduction
In 2020, IFOAM - Organics International published its revised revision plan for the development of the IFOAM Standard version 3.0. The revision plan included the development of a completely new section in the IFOAM Standard, on the production of organic invertebrates, as mandated by a motion adopted at the 2017 IFOAM General Assembly.
Prior to this, several organic standard owners had started developing standards, or requirements within their standards, for the production of organic terrestrial invertebrates. For instance, the European Commission had been drafting a section on organic insects; the Canadian regulation had one; BioSuisse, a leading private standard, had developed a section for organic insect production. Ecocert had a standard for organic snail production and ICEA had a standard for organic silkworm production. Additionally, some certification of invertebrates was happening under the scope of general organic regulations.
Starting in 2020, IFOAM - Organics International and its Standard Committee have taken on the task of drafting a chapter on the production of organic terrestrial invertebrates which will be included in the IFOAM Standard Version 3.0 and thus will be part of the IFOAM Norms.
Process of development of the new invertebrates section
The Standard Committee developed a first draft of the invertebrates section in 2020 and shared with experts and stakeholders through an expert public consultation held in January 2021. The draft received a total of 90 comments. Comments on the first version of the invertebrates standard and expert responses can be found here.
The comments were addressed from June to December 2021, and a second draft of the invertebrates standard was prepared by the Standard Committee. This second draft invertebrates section was shared for a second round of public consultation, including to the members of IFOAM - Organics International. Comments were collected between March 14th and April 30th, 2022. This second draft received a total of 69 comments. Comments to the second version of the invertebrates standard and responses from the Standard Committee can be found here.
As a result of the second round of public consultations, the third version of the invertebrates standard has been developed and can be found here: (Word version; PDF version). This third version was put for a third round of consultation during the period July 10th - August 8th, 2023. This consultation was only open to members of IFOAM-Organics International. This draft received no further comment.