What is a label?
Def. Larousse :
Label or special mark created by a trade union and affixed to a product intended for sale, to certify its origin, guarantee its quality and compliance with manufacturing standards. There are several forms of labels controlled by an official institute INAO, the National Institute of Origin and Quality:
Controlled Designation of Origin (AOC), Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (IGP), Guaranteed Traditional Specialty (TSG), Red Label (LR), Organic farming (AB), Blue white heart, Zero residue of pesticide (ZRP), High environmental value (HVE certification))
How to navigate?
Some labels are attached to a region, others to cultivation, breeding or manufacturing processes.
The red label is supposed to guarantee a certain quality (meat, cold cuts, grass, etc.) just like the traditional specialty guaranteed label. They are based on production or processing techniques.
Finally, there are some that have an environmental and health objective:
Blue white heart, AB, ZRP, HVE for example.
What about the main labels that target health and the environment?
Biological agriculture,
Label following a dogma rather based on beliefs and not on scientific data.
Is characterized by specifications based on means rather than results. It is also a label based on a postulate which arbitrarily considers that what is natural is better for health and for the environment, which is not proven and above all there are more and more counter-examples.
Blue white heart,
Since the beginning of the millennium, this label has been interested in health, the environment, but also animal welfare, which was quite new at that time. Very interested in feed for farm animals.
Zero pesticide residue,
Recent label which does not guarantee the total absence of phytosanitary products but that ” the absence of residues is determined by a result below the Limit of Quantification, which is the smallest value quantifiable by laboratories with an “acceptable” precision (Health document 11945/2015, European Commission) “(Ie approximately 0.01 mg of phyto per kg of consumable product) or 10,000 to 100,000 times less than the doses dangerous to health.
High environmental value,
Reliable label, one of the last labels created by the public authorities which comes in three progressive levels.
The label is based on an assessment of these different points. It is an evolving label that has a future because it does not obey a dogma but to follow technical and scientific developments.
Label guaranteeing a serious approach in terms of respect for the environment and health.
Level 1, which is more of an inventory of the farms that are starting the process. However, there must already be progress.
Level 2, totally oriented towards the passage to the N3. The farm has one year to reach N 3. At this level the rules to be respected are already very strict. It is a stage of the process which records the progress of the operation.
Level 3, final obtaining of the label
Control:
Compliance with phytosanitary regulations,
The general reduction in inputs,
Water management,
Respect for biodiversity.
The label is based on an assessment of these different points. It is an evolving label that has a future because it follows technical and scientific developments.
Main future competitor of organic farming in the very large catering market.
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