What are the conditions for using Heritaste?
Heritaste® – Conditions for use:
- The livestock and/or cultivated plants must be documented (herdbook/approved records) and on the national lists prepared by national NGOs for Heritaste.
- The production must be local, extensive and not industrial
- Animals must be kept in accordance to documented traditional husbandry methods as long as this does not compromise modern animal welfare regulations
- Traditional processing should be used and quality guaranteed (seasonal fluctuations are accepted for natural products)
- Ecosystem services (e.g. grazing) must provide proven benefit to local ecosystems
- Other services must provide proven benefit to in-situ/on farm conservation
- The production and distribution must respect rules of fair trade and support local economic structures
- No use of GMOs is permitted.
What do producers need to do in order to use the label?
People who want to use the Heritaste label:
- Pay an annual member fee to cover costs
- Fully document their farm and products as a “baseline”
- Send an annual report to show they are keeping to the rules of Heritaste
- Work together within a national/regional group to make sure that standards are kept to (farm visits etc) and to make suggestions for improvements.
How does certification work?
In consultation with both certification bodies and producers, the concept of a group of producers working in a mutually supportive and self-regulatory way has been elaborated. Although it is intended to still allow individual certification where it is desired, the idea of a grouping of producers has many benefits, for example it is beneficial for:
- Economies of scope
- Reducing transaction costs
- Reducing uncertainty
- Avoiding pointless competition
- Combining products and services to present a more diverse whole
- Joint ownership of certificate
- Exchange of experience and ideas
This “grouping” of producers can take many forms, depending on national laws and regulations. It is possible to expect that these groupings could be Farmers’ cooperatives, Breed organisations, NGOs, Interest/working group or Business partnerships.
What will SAVE / Heritaste do in return?
- Make unannounced “spot checks” at farms to make sure that no one is cheating.
- Give permission to use the label
- Provide a website, including webshop or links to own webshop (www.heritaste.eu in preparation)
- Coordinate (Networking, Newsletter, Training events etc)
- Make a full audit of farms where problems occur – paid, in full, by the “problem” producer.
In this way it should be possible to provide a trust-worthy certification process that does not cost too much.
How can I find out more?
Contact: SAVE Foundation
Project Office
Neugasse 30
CH-9000 St. Gallen
office@save-foundation.net