We support organic smallholders and local organic food consumption!

Organic farming mainly benefits poor smallholder farmers in rural areas, who are among the poorest people in the world. Millions of them are now practicing organic. However, various obstacles make their life difficult: they lack access to markets because they cannot afford organic certification. We are promoting an alternative and low-cost way to guarantee the organic quality of products with participation of local consumers, farmers and other stakeholders. It is called Participatory Guarantee System (PGS).

Why PGS?
Apart from guaranteeing the organic quality of a product, a PGS strengthens local markets and local communities and enhances awareness about organic agriculture. Especially in developing organic markets, the PGS approach has proven to be very successful in building up local networks of production and consumption. One of the most remarkable benefits of PGS is farmer empowerment, including personal growth, strengthening of individual self-confidence, increase in knowledge and skills.

Why the PGS Newsletter?
We have been publishing the Global PGS Newsletter as a tool to promote PGS since 2009. The number of subscribers now surpassed 1000 individuals worldwide and the number of PGS initiatives and farmers involved in PGS has by far multiplied since the launch of the newsletter. Currently, we count more than 100 initiatives in over 50 countries on all continents with at least 49,000 farmers involved. The countries where PGS is being strongly implemented include the Philippines, India, Bolivia, Uganda, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and Tanzania.

Since last year, our main donor could no longer support the PGS newsletter financially. However, we want to continue our efforts to promote PGS! Please support us and the worldwide PGS movement!

Learn more about PGS on our PGS online platform: www.ifoam.org/pgs