This last point created quite a bit of discussion between the 20 of us present, all working to develop PGS in Thailand one way or another. For a number, this system seems too similar to 3rd party certification. These people felt we still need to have a lot of flexibility to develop different methods and standards. Vitoon R. Panyakul presented a bit about the work Green Net has done to help develop different Organic+ PGS systems for GNSE’s “Organic Forest Coffee,” Sawang Boran’s organic fair trade silk (fabric and garments), and Wanakaset’s Organic Agroforestry System. In each of these cases, the flexibility of PGS allows one to add other standards deemed important by these groups, such a farm biodiversity minimums in the case of Wanakaset to which my family is also a member, or Sawang Boran’s standards to require fabrics to be 100% naturally dyed and hand woven. Dennis was quite interested to see how PGS was opening up such opportunities and encouraged our further efforts. Where the debate became more heated was on the point of developing a common mark. We could see that the common nationally recognized PGS mark of OFNZ was serving a valuable marketing purpose while helping the organic choice to not be a confusing one for consumers there. The problem was that a common mark and promotion means that there must be at least mutual recognition of all of the PGS groups using this mark. In New Zealand this evolved into having each group use the same forms, standards, and process. Many of the Thai stakeholders did not feel they want to have one system for all, and we all recognized that we are just beginners in this process, so what is the best system or systems for Thai needs is yet to be determined. Even the way to translate PGS to Thai could be debated and there are a few translations at present. Nakorn, of City Farm (the leading urban farming movement), said in the end this will be decided by what word sticks. I know when I started with Green Net 10 years ago, many other stakeholders didn’t like and were not using the term “Organic Farming” or its Thai translation “Kaset Insee.” But now these words are well recognized, while other terms have faded in use.
While my personal opinion that Vitoon’s concept of mutual recognition based upon certain (few) minimum standards and a peer verification that each process does in fact work to check and develop the performance of its members could be the answer to allow flexibility while allowing for development of a common mark and promotion, this debate was not settled. There was general consensus that now is the time to experiment and get these PGS systems operational and to learn from this process. With time and experience, we should all be a bit clearer on what works and what doesn’t. For a next meeting of this developing PGS network, it is planned that the focus will be on this sharing of practical experience of the different Thai groups practicing PGS. Thus we can learn from each other, and hopefully use this interesting tool to further develop opportunity for small-scale farmers, broadening the benefits of organic farming to our country and those involved.
By Michael B. Commons, Earth Net Foundation