BFA Chairman Doug Haas reports on the rise and rise of the BFA    The BFA was a major force in ensuring that organic standards in Australia remained in the hands of farmers and those in the organic community who had and have a real stake in the production and marketing of organic foods and fibres.   Initially formed to progress the interests of farmers and processors who wished to promote and protect the message of organics, including the setting of organic standards, the BFA moved on to develop its certification program to independently verify that farmers and processors were producing in accord with those standards.   The BFA has both biodynamic (a specific form of organic production) and organic farmers and hence the name biological farmers was defined to promote a simple message that such farmers were using natural methods, not synthetic or unnatural methods to produce their foods for consumers.   The BFA was registered as a co-operative in 1988, following some key community and industry meetings across the country, and has moved office headquarters a number of times over the past 15 years, having been based in Toowoomba for some 7 years to 2003.   The head office of the BFA resides in Brisbane, Queensland, reflecting the maturing nature of the organic industry and the increasing demands on this growing organization to meet the needs of members and clients. The BFA has a regional office in South Australia – the Barossa – which assists in BFA’s task of operating a national, indeed international, program.   The Barossa office was maintained when the BFA integrated with what was then the Organic Vignerons Association of Australia, bringing on board Australia ’s leading organic vignerons across Australia in 2001.   The BUD logo was initially designed by Rosemary Dunn of South Australia , one of BFA’s early and still loyal members, while sitting around the Dunn’s kitchen table.   The bud represents everything that BFA is about. The growth and promise of spring, the sign of big things growing from the initial organic movement, and the strength and logic of nature and natural (biological and organic) systems in guiding our choices in life.   The bud is a registered mark with IP Australia and is the oldest Australian organic certification mark in the country still currently in use. Many other symbols and organic signs have come and gone through the last two decades of the organic industry’s development in Australia . There are others, like in other countries of the world where organic products are traded, but none as recognized as the bud logo. Most importantly the bud represents Australia ’s leading certification program – ensuring integrity of organic products in the marketplace for consumers.   As the industry and the market is now maturing and growing with an ever widening group of consumers, the bud is simplifying organic consumer’s choices by being easy to recognize, now on the majority of organic products bearing an organic certification mark in Australia, and bearing the simple words “Australian Certified Organic” - what consumers are demanding.   Australian Certified Organic Pty Ltd (ACO) is BFA’s independent subsidiary which looks after certification of organic foods and fibres and was set up in 2001 to distinctly separate the task of certifying and regulating organic products from that of promotion of the industry and representing the industry’s interests to government.   The early 1990s saw involvement from the federal Australian government following industry request to establish a national organic standard for production and marketing for export. This was formalized in 1991 and remains today as a bedrock regulation upon which the BFA bases its popular Australian Organic Standard (AOS). The BFA maintains regulation conformance with all leading organic standards across the world, arguably making the AOS (now in its 6th edition) one of the most respected and rigorous standards in the world for organic production.   Such conformance includes the international organic organization IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements), the USDA’s National Organic Program, the Japanese Organic Standard, the EU’s Organic regulations, etc.   The AOS is available on line or through the BFA office in hard copy, and is reviewed annually to ensure it is both conforming with these international and national requirements but most importantly is also reflecting the interests and needs of the organic community – which include farmers and processors as well as retailers and consumers.   The BFA maintains the Australian Organic Standard (AOS) which its subsidiary ACO then administers – separating the powers of the “legislative” from the “executive”. BFA, and now ACO, maintains accreditation (approval and authorization to act as a certifier) with AQIS – the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, IFOAM via IOAS, USDA, and indirectly via AQIS with all other major government and private regulators across the world.   ACO certifies over half of all certified operators in Australia for organic production. BFA is the largest member based representative group for the organic industry, promoting trade, development and organic standards. The BFA as a consequence is the “largest organic democracy” in Australia , and indeed in the region, with the Board of 5 being voted on by members and members having key input into the direction and content of BFA strategies, standards and activities in the industry.   Member involvement in the co-op has always been a key attribute of the BFA.   Being resolutely focused on the needs and interests of members of the co-op and being financially accountable and practically focused, the BFA has grown to the extraordinary size and nature that it is today. It continues to build on these strengths and to service member needs and the interests of the organic community in Australia and abroad.

"The Biological Farmers of Australia Co-operative Ltd has been serving the organic community in Australia since the 1980s and is today the largest organic grouping of interests in organic and biological approaches to agriculture and food production in Australasia".

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