Participatory Guarantee Systems for organic farming: reclaiming the commons

Using the definition developed by Hess and Ostrom (2007), we consider the content of organic farming labels as a system of intellectual common-pool resources. Access to this resource is threatened by phenomena of enclosure and commodification. Third party certification, which is controlled by private competitive operators, is becoming the unique channel to gain legal access to public labels in many countries. However, the high cost of this certification may exclude a large part of the community at the origin of the resource – especially small diversified farmers. It also threatens resource renewal. In this article, we describe an alternative mechanism called participatory guarantee systems (PGS). Participatory certification is based on peer-review assessment (involving producers from the community), additional control mechanisms are also mobilized according to the context, in order to measure compliance with the standard’s specifications. PGS encourage producers to share knowledge, support ongoing learning processes and, thus, resource renewal. Drawing on design principles from Ostrom’s approach, we analyse ten PGS initiatives in the world – Nature et Progres (France), Ecovida (Brazil), Certified Naturally Grown (United States), Organic Farm New Zealand, the Asociacion Nacional de Productores/as Ecologicos (Peru), Vietnam PGS, PGS India, Ngong Organic Farmer Association (Kenya), Good Market Organic PGS (Sri Lanka) and BioSPG du Conseil National de l'agriculture Biologique (Burkina Faso) – and discuss their robustness and sustainability. We demonstrate their relatively robustness in terms of self-organization and suggest that their current development in many countries contribute to a re-appropriation of the commons. ....French Abstract: En utilisant la definition developpee par Hess et Ostrom (2007), nous considerons le contenu des labels d'agriculture biologique comme un systeme de ressources communes intellectuelles. L'acces a cette ressource est menace par des phenomenes de privatisation et de marchandisation. La certification par tiers qui fait appel a des operateurs prives independant est devenu le seul moyen d'acceder aux labels publics dans de nombreux pays. Cependant, le cout eleve de cette certification peut exclure une grande partie de la communaute a l'origine de la ressource - en particulier les petits agriculteurs diversifies. Elle menace egalement le renouvellement de la ressource. Dans cet article, nous decrivons un mecanisme alternatif appele systeme de garantie participative (SPG). La certification participative est d’abord basee sur une evaluation par les pairs (impliquant les producteurs de la communaute), des mecanismes de controle supplementaires sont egalement mobilises en fonction du contexte, afin de mesurer la conformite a la norme. Les SPG encouragent les producteurs a partager leurs connaissances, a appuyer les processus d'apprentissage continu et, par consequent, a renouveler la ressource commune. En nous basant sur les principes de conception d'Ostrom, nous analysons dix initiatives de SPG dans le monde - Nature et Progres (France), Ecovida (Bresil), Certified Naturally Grown (Etats-Unis), Organic Farm New Zealand, Asociacion Nacional de Productores/as Ecologicos (Perou), Vietnam PGS, PGS India, Ngong Organic Farmer Association (Kenya), Good Market Organic PGS (Sri Lanka) et BioSPG du Conseil national de l'agriculture biologique (Burkina Faso). Nous demontrons leur relative robustesse en termes d'auto-organisation et suggerons que leur developpement actuel dans de nombreux pays contribue a une reappropriation des communs.