FiBL websites

FiBL offers a number of Internet sites on themes relating to organic agriculture.

Annual meeting of the biocontrol industry: ABIM Lucerne

ABIM Lucerne, the first meeting of the biocontrol industry, is scheduled for October 2006. A dedicated website at www.abim-lucerne.ch provides detailed information about the conference’s programme, location, aims and background. The site also provide a facility for online registration.

Contact: Lucius Tamm

www.abim-lucerne.ch

Allesbio.de

Allesbio.de is the most comprehensive listing of direct sellers of organic products in Germany, containing some 4000 entries. Besides addresses and contact details, consumers will find information on opening times and product ranges at the different outlets. Allesbio.de was built by Waltraud Schulze and taken over by FiBL Germany (FiBL Deutschland e.V.) on 1.12.03.

Contact: Rolf Mäder

www.allesbio.de (german)

bioaktuell.ch – the platform for Swiss organic farmers

FiBL and Bio Suisse maintain this site to present in one place the diverse services of consultants and advisors, and in order to facilitate access to the information farmers need. Here organic farmers have direct access to documentations, training provision, contact persons, news and much more – all just one click away.

Contact: Gilles Weidmann

www.bioaktuell.ch (german)

bioXgen.de

What can producers, processors and traders do to avoid the contamination of their products with GMOs? A new handbook produced by the German Federation of the Organic Food Industry (BÖLW), FiBL and the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut) illustrates problems and identifies measures that can be taken. The handbook is published as a virtual loose-leaf folder on a dedicated website.

Contact: Rolf Mäder

www.bioXgen.de (german)

Cattle breeding for organic farming in Switzerland

Working together with breeders and the Bio Suisse organic federation, FiBL has developed a website dedicated to organic cattle breeding. The site provides breeders with background information on organic breeding, and concrete tips on how to select breeding animals, especially bulls, for their operations. For instance, the site points to bulls particularly suited for artificial insemination on organic holdings. It also showcases organic farms which use natural service and regularly sell or place breeding bulls. This creates a forum where breeding partnerships among organic farms can evolve.

Contact: Anet Spengler Neff

www.biorindviehzucht.ch (german)

Entrepreneurial skills in agriculture

The EU project “Entrepreneurial Skills of Farmers“(ESoF) analyses the economic, social and cultural factors which hold back or foster the development of entrepreneurial thinking in farmers. The project website www.esofarmers.org publishes project information and progress reports. It also provides project partners from different countries with a digital collaboration platform, including document management and a mailing list.

Contact: Christine Rudmann

www.esofarmers.org

EU Project: Organic Action Plan

In June 2004, the European Commission adopted the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming. The ORGAP project is now monitoring and evaluating the Action Plan’s implementation. A dedicated project website – www.orgap.org – provides up-to-date information on the project’s themes and status. Moreover, the site gives project partners, representing a large number of countries, a digital platform with document management and e-mail distribution services.

Contact: Otto Schmid

www.orgap.org

Giving organic a face

Seeing where it comes from: The "www.bio-mit-gesicht.de" website now allows consumers to find out how and by whom the product they purchase, such as potatoes, was cultivated or processed. The organic product carries a well-visible reference to www.bio-mit-gesicht.de and a “bio-mit-gesicht” (giving organic a face) number. On the “giving organic a face” website, consumers can type in the number of the product and access a profile of the farm or company which produced or processed the product.

Contact: Frank Wörner

www.bio-mit-gesicht.de (german)

Inputs and feedstuffs in Switzerland

Several different bodies of regulation govern feedstuffs and auxiliary inputs for Swiss organic farming. FiBL has developed a special web-based service providing information on the relevant standards and formal procedures. In addition to cutting-edge information, the website provides for download all relevant forms and the current version of the list of permitted premixes and feed additives. The site has two addresses: www.hilfsstoffliste.fibl.org and www.futtermittel.fibl.org.

Contact: Bernhard Speiser

www.hilfsstoffliste.fibl.org / www.futtermittel.fibl.org (german)

ISOFAR

Information service of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR). This organization was founded by FiBL and the Institute of Organic Agriculture (Institut für Organischen Landbau – IOL, Bonn).

Contact: Helga Willer

www.isofar.org

Legal Regulations in Organic Agriculture

This web page provides information about the statutory regulations and key private-sector standards applying to organic products in the import and export markets of relevance to Germany. It was created by FiBL Germany within the context of the German Federal Programme for Organic Agriculture (Bundesprogramm Ökologischer Landbau).

Contact: Beate Huber

www.oekoregelungen.de (german)

Naturschutzberatung.info

Farm-level nature conservation advice is an innovative approach towards enhanced conservation in organic farming. The site is designed mainly for consultants and multipliers who wish to help establish and provide farm-level nature conservation advice. The site promotes this goal by providing information on actor networking, relevant literature and events.

Contact: Thomas van Elsen

www.naturschutzberatung.info (german)

oekolandbau.de

The central Internet portal provides information on the issues surrounding organic farming for a range of target groups: farmers, processors, large procurers, retailers – and for consumers, children, youths, teachers, journalists and scientists.

FiBL’s tasks within the project are to provide coordination services and the editorial content of the "producers" and "children" sections.

Contact: Cordula Binder (producers), Frank Wörner (children)

www.oekolandbau.de (german)

Information on the Federal Scheme for Organic Farming:
www.bundesprogramm.de (german)

Online manual for on-farm field trials

www.praxisversuche.de provides an online manual which helps farmers and horticulturalists to carry out field trials. The manual was developed within the context of the German Federal Organic Farming Scheme BÖL by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL Germany) in cooperation with the Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and the Gut Wilmersdorf farm.

Contact: Klaus-Peter Wilbois

www.praxisversuche.de (german)

Organic farming inputs in Germany

The www.betriebsmittel.org website provides a wealth of information on the assessment system for organic farming inputs in Germany. Producers of inputs and supplies can register via the site, using downloadable forms. The site holds all the essential information that producers and inspection bodies need.

Contact: Rolf Mäder

www.betriebsmittel.org (german)

organic-europe.net

Information on organic farming in Europe: News country reports, statistics, addresses

Contact: Helga Willer

www.organic-europe.net

organic-world.net

Information on organic farming world-wide (currently expanded); accompanies the work on the global study on organic farming (“The World of Organic Agriculture”): Texts, graphs, background info.

Contact: Helga Willer

www.organic-world.net

organicXseeds.com

The internet-database OrganicXseeds of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) is running in six different countries as official data base for organic seed:
In Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Luxemburg, Switzerland and United Kingdom the provisions of the regulation EC/1452/2003 are implemented by using OrganicXseeds.

Contact: Klaus-Peter Wilbois

www.organicXseeds.com

Research in Organic Agriculture

forschung.oekolandbau.de is the central communication medium for the final reports of research and development projects carried out under the German Federal Scheme for Organic Farming. Each time new final reports are added, a brief message is posted by way of announcement. Full-text versions can be accessed via the Organic Eprints database.

Contact: Julia Meier

http://forschung.oekolandbau.de (german)

Transgen.ch

Using the slogan “Know what’s going on” www.transgen.ch provides information on the issue of genetic engineering in the environment, in farming, and in food production. The internet portal is targeted at consumers and producers as well as at those who have an interest in the topic of genetically modified plants and products, both professionally and in their everyday lives. The website gives special consideration to the general and legal situation in Switzerland.

Contact: Bernadette Oehen

www.transgen.ch (german)

Viticulture at FiBL

In 2004, FiBL took over management of the Aargauische Staatstrotte state winery and started to convert its vineyards to organic production methods. “Weingut FiBL”, the FiBL winery, has its own website, where it provides information on its work, wine-tasting events and viticultural research. Moreover, the full range of available wines can be ordered online.

Contact: Andreas Tuchschmid

www.weingut.fibl.org (german)