Does anyone know of any food manufacturers who have achieved ISO14001? Or a manufacturer who has explored the possibility nd decided against certification?
Thank you,
Patricia
Patricia Barnes,
Senior Partner,
Barnes and Jeffreys,
Sustainable Business Solutions
6965 Marine Drive,
West Vancouver, BC, V7W 2T4
'Phone: (604) 922 0163
Cell: 778 288 8731
Web: www.BarnesandJeffreys.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Food Production & ISO14001
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Biodiversity - Journal of Life on Earth, Vol.7, Nos. 3 & 4, 2006 (pub.date: March, 2007)
An article, "Ill Fares the Land: Reflections on Sustainable Organic Agriculture" puts organic farming into a political context, noting the "deleterious effects of industrialized agriculture", the family farm takeover by "agribusiness", noting that "The dominant forces in the new 'rural' America are giant farmers and corporations producing about 98% of the country's food (Vallianatos 2003 and 2006). For me, a disturbing trend is the public funding agribusiness receives, plus the mono-crop aspect and its effect on soil, biodiversity, chemical use, shipping aspects, etc. There is a diagram showing "The corporate ownership of organic food", courtesy of Cornucopia Institute (http://cornucopia.org) which shows the "organic" brands of these huge corporations. When farming does not respect nature, then the product, no matter how modern society categorizes/labels/certifies, is not part of a healthy sustainable future. I am much more careful about believing the term "organic" now, and prefer buying within the 100-mile perimeter because I can meet the grower and check out the source myself.
S. Lawrence
B.C., Canada
Dear Barbara: Your question could be answered in a number of ways - yes there are food companies that have achieved 14001 - Dole has for example. ISO Central Secretariat published an article on their system. There is a blueberry producer in Quebec, a food cooperative in the Niagara Region, wineries in New Zealand, a cheese maker in Austria, etc. If you type into Google "whoseregistered.com" you will find a site that has companies that have posted their third party certified systems on-line. I know of some companies who adopted 14001, certified their system once and then dropped the maintenance of the certified external audit for any number of reasons - cost, lack of market requirements, concerns regarding value, etc. but they maintain the EMS, and it conforms to the standard.
The second part of your question seems to infer that if the company did not certify, they did not adopt the standard. This is one of these interesting myths, I think in part, perpetuated by remnant issues starting with ISO 9001 and sometimes perpetuated by others who have a financial interest in certification. To be absolutely clear - the standard does not require an organization to certify. The same applies to 9001 - the standard does not require the user to obtain third party certification. These two ISO management system standards are voluntary. A company can use elements of the standard to improve their own system, or they may adopt it in whole. If they just use parts of the standard, they should not state what the business calls conformity, as it infers in the business community that you have implemented all the requirements.
Further, in ISO 14001:2004 there are four conformity assessment options, none are better than the other, they are merely four options, the market helps the user decide which one is appropriate. The four options are as follows, these are the intent of the four options, not a copy of the words in the standard:
a) self-determination and self-declaration
b) what is often referred to as second party audits- typically a customer auditing a supplier
c) a disinterested party determination - this is based on the EnviroReady Report process, whereby professional accountants with the appropriate training and recognition provide an annual review
d) traditional third party certification
In Europe, there are situations where a regulation may 'foster/force' the use of a standard. A customer may state that preference is given to suppliers with the standard. But these are market conditions. Other countries are considering this alignment with standards - not specific to the food industry necessarily. There are actually quite a few 'boards' held by various countries that post statistics on certification although the data is not often of use beyond a number, i.e. 5 companies or 500...they make give statistical reference to sectors, but usually no names. Canada has 1706 certificates, although through some analysis started by Environment Canada a few years ago the number of companies involved is closer to about 650...I would have to check to see how many were food related, cannot cite this off the top of my head.
Hope that helps you.
L. E. Johannson B.E.S., (Hons) M.Sc., FRSA
President E2 Management Corporation (E2M)