LAS HIPOTESIS EN EL PROCESO METODOLOGICO

Fødevarer, Landbrug og Fiskeri]

The Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries is the highest authority in Denmark responsible for the EU Organic Farming Regulations. Only authorities under the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries carry out inspections under the government rules for organic production. The Danish Plant Directorate inspects the primary production, while the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration inspects processing. Since November 2007 the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries includes the Veterinary and Food Administration. Its structure can be seen in the organisation chart in Fig. 14. The main tasks of the Ministry are agricultural policy, fisheries policy, nutrition, food and veterinary inspection as well as animal health and animal welfare68_.

The state authorities authorise organic operations such as farms, market gardens, forestry cultivators, suppliers to and partners of agriculture, food processors; they carry out the control at all authorised businesses and suppliers to agriculture at a minimum of one annual control visit, supplemented by a number of spot checks at selected operators and businesses; and they carry out the control at all authorised food producing businesses as an integrated part of the general food control activities. The inspectors are employed by the state. The central authorities co-ordinate the controls to ensure a consistent procedure throughout the country69_.

66 _{http://www.uk.foedevarestyrelsen.dk/Food_Safety/Organic_food/forside.htm} 67 _{http://www.uk.foedevarestyrelsen.dk/Food_Safety/Organic_food/forside.htm ?? 2009} 68 _{http://www.fvm.dk/The_Ministry.aspx?ID=15227 (190310)}

35 Strassner CBB, Lukas M & Løes A-K, Bioforsk report Vol. 5 No. 103/ 2010

Fig. 14: Organisation of the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries

7.3

Delegation of certification to: The Danish Plant

Directorate and The Danish Veterinary and Food

Administration

The competent authorities responsible for the Danish organic certification and inspection system are the Plant Directorate and the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration. The Plant Directorate70 _{is responsible}

for the registration and inspection of the organic farms and farm supplying companies producing organic feed, seeds, fertilizers, soil improvers and other non-food products. The certification and control of organic farmers, farm suppliers, processors, packaging and labelling enterprises is paid by the government as part of the annual Finance Act. However, certification and control of Danish producers and/or wholesalers exporting to other countries has to be paid by the exporter. The subsidizing system for support of the organic farmers is administrated by the Danish Food Industry Agency, which administers all the agricultural subsidy programmes in Denmark.

7.3.1 The Danish Plant Directorate

The Danish Plant Directorate is responsible for the first part of the food chain, i.e. for the quality and health of agricultural produce and for the control of EU agricultural subsidy schemes. It manages its tasks with about 580 employees. Inspections are central to the activities of the Danish Plant Directorate. They are carried out to ensure compliance with applicable rules and regulations. These include legislation on the safety of feeds and foods, the Danish Ø symbol, the aquatic environment, the disbursement of EU subsidies and the certificates necessary for exports.

Inspections are carried out by the staff of six district offices in the cities Aalborg, Odense, Roskilde, Vejen, Viborg and Aarhus, which all carry the control code DK-Ø-50. The Directorate regularly publishes the results of inspections and analyses. The Department of Organic Farming (see Fig. 15) has approximately 25 employees administering and developing the Danish rules on organic farming in collaboration with the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the Danish Food Industry Agency71_; 72_; 73_; 74_.

70 _{http://pdir.fvm.dk/Økologi.aspx?ID=2128}

71 _{http://www.fvm.dk/Danish_Plant_Directorate.aspx?ID=14935 (190310)} 72 _{http://www.pdir.fvm.dk/Inspections.aspx?ID=6716 (190310)}

Board of Directors Executive secretariat Finance

IT

Human resources Office of legal affairs Technical department Service department

Departments Inspections

Department of feeding stuffs and fertilizer Department of seed

Department of plants and plant health Department of environment

Department of EU-control Department of organic farming

Control coordination unit Inspections

Fig. 15: Organisational structure of the Danish Plant Directorate75

7.3.2 The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, with about 2.145 employees, is responsible for food safety and health along the food chain, specifically food processing, packaging and labelling operations. The head office is situated just north of Copenhagen and deals with development, co-ordination and the formation of rules and regulations. Inspections are carried out by its 10 regional control and enforcement offices situated in the 3 regions of Denmark (North, South, East). These regional offices carry the control codes DK-Ø-1 to DK-Ø-10. Food control and veterinary inspections are conducted by three regional veterinary and food control centres76_; 77_.

The inspection of organic food production is usually carried out as a part of the ordinary control according to the food legislation. Public authorities and their inspectors are regarded as independent and impartial and are subject to parliamentary control. Inspection of organic foods in Denmark applies to all stages from farm to fork. Even operations that are exclusively wholesalers or store organic foods at the wholesale level are covered by the organic food inspection. This means enhanced conditions for carrying out cross checks to which Danish authorities attach great importance as a means of complementing the ordinary inspection of internal accounts78_.

Like all Danish authorities, inspectors are subject to the Danish Public Access Act and the Danish Public Administration Act. Essentially, the Public Access Act secures that any Danish citizen or enterprise can request access to the files of the public administration with a few exemptions such as strictly confidential or personal information. The purpose of The Public Access Act is transparency: that everybody should have access to the reasons for the decisions made by public authorities79_{. All}

inspectors have relevant education in agriculture, food or veterinary science etc., and they are full- time employees of local inspection units. Their competence in organic farming is ensured through attendance at regular courses, through working groups and detailed inspection manuals80_.