Stamp of approval

Organic vegetable farmers must now obtain certification before marketing their produce as ‘organic’.

While the rest of the world was busy preparing for the New Year’s Eve party last week, a few vegetable sellers were preoccupied with one thing: that new stickers bearing the words “Certified Organic” get pasted on their produce before it hits the market. On Saturday, new food labelling requirements demand that only Government-approved organic farms get to label their produce as “organic”, thus putting an end to a situation that is best described as a “free-for-all”.