April 3, 2018, the first reading of the Bill on Organic Farming was held in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ivan Lebedev, speaking in the State Duma with a report on the draft law, noted that the legislatively fixed mechanisms for regulating organic production processes are now absent in the Russian Federation. The current situation creates conditions when unscrupulous producers have the opportunity to label their products ungroundedly as 'organic', 'biological', 'environmental', thereby misleading the consumer.
Ivan Lebedev said that the law would allow the introduction of a single sign of organic products, define uniform rules for the production of organic materials, which are already established in national standards, help establish a certification system for organic production, and provide for the maintenance of the state register of such producers. The population will be provided with high-quality food, unscrupulous producers will be forced out of the market, the profitability of farmers, including small farms, will increase. The ecological situation will also improve, due to the use of biological methods for increasing soil fertility and plant protection.
Deputy Vladimir Plotnikov, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on agro-industry, noted that the bill will give an additional impetus to the development of domestic organic farming. Now this market is developing spontaneously. The law will form the basis of the national system of certification and standardization.
Source: agri-news.ru.
