The Canary pine has the healthy habit of surviving a fire. Its 8-centimeter-thick bark protects the tree’s interior, which not only becomes fire-resistant but also learns to benefit from it. The heat in fires promotes the opening and germination of pine cones once everything has passed. It not only survives fire, but also multiplies thanks to it.
We went to La Palma to see its bananas, not its pines, but this is how we had the opportunity to get to know a tiny part of the spirit of the people there, the “Palmeros”, which has much to do with these characteristic trees of the area.

The skin of the Palmeros – inhabitants of the island – is not as thick as the bark of the Canary pine, but they have proven to be equally resistant to fire, especially that of the volcanoes. The initial reaction to the eruption was joy at being part of a historic moment. As this situation extended in time, but especially in space, joy turned into concern and despair when the lava flow reached a width of 3 km. This translated to 370 hectares buried by the volcano’s lava, 90 hectares left completely isolated, and more than 400 hectares affected by volcanic ash.


When on the 13th of December 2021 – three months later – the eruption was declared over, the Palmeros breathed a sigh of relief. One problem ended, but a bigger one began: the reconstruction of the island and the recovery of the economic engine, the banana. La Palma is indeed synonymous with Canary bananas. Wherever you go, wherever you look, there are bananas. Almost everyone directly or indirectly relies on bananas for their livelihood. Tourism is also an important part, but it doesn’t carry as much weight as on other islands.

The task of recovering the affected agricultural areas is monumental, but as the Palmeros say, “our ancestors did it, so we will we.”

The lava flow has an average width of 12 meters, making retreat impossible. The most feasible solution is to do what was done before: flatten that surface, cover it with fertile soil, and start from scratch. It’s not a simple or cheap task, but the beautiful island wants to regain its rhythm and overcome this black and destructive burden that has befallen it.

It’s not surprising that the official plant symbol of the island is the Canary pine. Another unique feature of the Canary pine, and what makes it distinctive, is its leaves. They consist of three needles instead of two, like other pines. This triple structure is imprinted even in the trio that makes up the island, the banana, and its people, to the extent that we don’t just have a banana, but we have Canary bananas.

If there’s one positive aspect of the La Palma volcano eruption and the damage it caused to banana plantations, it’s that it has put this island on the map for many Europeans and introduced them to this very special product.

The mildest level of frost damage ends up freezing the most exposed or least protected fruits on the tree. The most serious damage makes all the oranges freeze, the branches get burnt, and the trees die. Depending on how ripe the oranges are and how much sugar they have, they’ll be able to withstand the cold better. When slicing open an orange, you can see some white spots resulting from Hesperidin’s crystallisation due to low temperatures. One of the side effects is that the segments break open and the juice is released into the fruit. As there’s always calm after a storm, when the sun beats down and the tree needs water, it’s easier to get it from its own oranges than from the ground. This juice that had been released into the orange when the segment broke is absorbed by the tree and the orange dries out.

– “Paco, what a bummer. How bad has it been?”
– “Pretty bad Juan, I thought that the breeze would have helped, but it went down to -3ºC during several hours and lots of oranges froze.”
– “That’s crazy, Paco. This happening just now, when we were about to start shipping the boxes…”
– “Those frosts always happen when you’ve done all the culture work, and you are finally ready to sell your harvest. But, Juan, my friend, nature shows us again that she’s the boss here. Being situated in an area where it can get chilly makes our oranges taste better, but a variation of 2-3º is crucial and makes the difference between a good orange and a frozen one.”

Statistics prove to be right again: 1 in 10 years, there is always a bad year with frosts. Even though it doesn’t happen often, when it happens it’s always a bummer. With this post, we want to send our support to all the Farmers that have experienced the same difficulties in 2021, knowing that it’s going to be tough for them to overcome this season financially.

If roquefort were lethal, we would already have lost half of the French population. If mould has grown on a cheese that doesn’t normally have it, such as a hard type of cheese, remove it from the surface with a knife and observe where it has spread in order to remove the affected part as well as its surroundings. What would be more worrying is if a cheese that was sold to you as artisan doesn’t develop mould over time. 

Another question we often hear is if the crust of the cheese can be eaten or not. The short and long answer to this question is: if your cheese has a natural crust, yes. Whether or not you enjoy it is a different conversation, but the cheese crust is… (drum roll): cheese! The crust is merely the external part of the cheese that has dried out, to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the length of maturation. On this external part, microorganisms grow and directly or indirectly give the cheese its nuances. These microorganisms are mainly the moulds that naturally grow and inoculate during the process. Cheeses such as brie or camembert have a crust covered with mould. If this couldn’t be eaten, we would have lost the other half of the French population.  

The crust that should not be eaten, however, is the one on industrial cheeses. Even if they are produced according to the strictest food regulations, they still contain paraffin or colorants. Another important aspect to consider before deciding whether or not to eat the crust is knowing where this crust has previously been. If you buy or receive a cheese directly from the farmer, it isn’t the same as if this cheese had been kept on a shop counter or other surface. That being said, this decision can vary by individual based on their own personal standards. 

What exactly is mould anyway?

Mould consists of filamentous fungi that grow in warm and moist environments. The spores in which they spread allow them to survive in unfavourable conditions. These spores are present in the environment and, when they find favourable conditions, initiate the formation of mold. The Penicillium roqueforti and Penicillium camemberti molds are responsible for the two cheeses named after them. The Geotrichum candidum mold is partly responsible for the white crust on some cheeses such as camembert. 

I ordered a natural cheese and it arrived covered with mould after a few days in transit, why?

During the aging process, this cheese is brushed as to homogeneously spread the mold formation and to reduce its amount. Once the cheese has left its cave and is on its way to your home, no one is brushing it so it is normal that it arrives a little scruffy. At this point, you may just brush it slightly with a cloth to remove the excess mold and prepare to enjoy it. 

In general, it is recommended to consume the mould on cheeses that naturally have it in their composition, and to remove it from cheeses that don’t. In other words: when it comes to roquefort, you may eat everything with the exception of the label, but on a manchego cheese, it is ideal to cut off the mould before enjoying it. In case of any reservation, it is better to remove the affected part as some moulds can give the cheese a bad taste and give some a bad evening.

Disclaimer: This article is intended to disclose verified information with which anyone can form their own opinion on the subject discussed below. If you would like to provide relevant information to enrich or improve this article, please contact us.

Is the ecological standard the same for everyone?

If the European Union sets the rules of the game common for everyone, why do opinions arise that the rules are different in each country or even in each region?

The EU proposes a common legislative framework, but delegates the implementation to each country. This does not mean that each member state has freedom of interpretation of the standard, but that within the margin set by the EU, each country organizes the certification of organic production based on the specific characteristics and climatology of each country. Each member state delegates the powers of inspection and certification to its Control Authority and this is responsible for organizing the bodies that monitor proper implementation. In general, certification has been delegated to accredited private companies. 

In Spain, for example, the state delegates the management of certification to each autonomy. Thus, in some autonomous regions such as Madrid, Andalusia or Castilla la Mancha, certification is carried out by private companies and in other cases such as the Valencia Region, Asturias, the Basque Country or Catalonia, the certifier is a public body. Some of the authorised private companies are CAECV or CCPAE. 

In France there are also different certifiers such as Ecocert, Certipaq Bio, Bureau Veritas or Certisud. 

In Germany the companies Grünstempel® – Ökoprüfstelle e.V., KIWA, Ecocert, ARS PROBATA GmbH, among others, are in charge. 

The European Union has set up this website to identify the authorised inspection bodies in each country.

Then what is the difference between certification from one country or another?

Control bodies. They are the ones who, that ultimately and with little margin of variation allowed by the regulations, define a producer’s risk assessment. All producers are subject to an on-site inspection at least once a year, preferably without warning. Apart from the annual inspection, the inspection bodies define how many additional assessments they will make. This is based on a general assessment of the risk of non-compliance with organic production rules, taking into account the results of previous inspections, the quantity of products concerned and the risk of product substitution.

The control bodies also do not act in their own free will but have to submit their certification schemes to the control authority and in turn undergo audits to ensure that they are doing their job well. 

To further reduce this variable, the new rules “confer on the Commission implementing powers as regards the minimum percentage of all official controls to be carried out without prior warning and the minimum percentage of additional controls, as well as the minimum number of samples to be taken”. This means that the Commission will harmonise this paragraph from 2021. 

Can one country’s certification be stricter than that of another? 

No. The certification is the same for all member states. We explain it with an example:

An organic certified product, for example in Finland, can be marketed as organic in any other member state. If, for example, Finland has a strawberry production standard that limits certain aspects more than the organic standard itself, strawberries produced in Finland will have to comply with the Finnish standard and the EU organic standard in order to be marketed in Finland. But strawberries produced, for example in Austria, will only have to comply with EU organic production rules in order to be sold in Finland as such, as the supposedly more restrictive local rules would in this case only fictitiously affect strawberries produced in Finland. 

In conclusion, the European Union has made a firm commitment to defending and promoting organic production and is working to maintain consumer confidence in the system. The points where problems or risks have been detected with the first regulation of 2007 are being rectified in the regulation that will come into effect in 2021.

General data on organic production in the European Union 

Since the 1960s and 1970s when organic farming in Europe began to take shape, demand has grown to become a 30.7 billion euro market by 2016. The cultivated area has also been growing and in the last decade has increased by 70% reaching almost 7% of the total agricultural area of the EU in 2017 and accounting for 18% of the world’s organic agricultural area. Within the European Union, the largest producer is Spain with 16.6%, followed by Italy with 15.2% and France with 13.9%. Germany ranks fourth with 9% (2017 data). 

Despite the increase in the area dedicated to organic production, we must not lose sight of the fact that nearly 45% of it are permanent pastures. A fact that hangs over the heads of producers who doubt whether or not to switch to organic farming is that in organic farming the yield can be reduced between 15% and 60% compared to a conventional crop. At the time of making the decision, one of the variables analyzed by producers is whether the drop in yield can be offset by a higher selling price. 

There is a paradox in the European Union that the countries with the largest area dedicated to organic farming are not its main consumers since Germany with 9,500 million euros and France with 6,700 million are the main consumers of organic produce in the EU. Today, Europe is the second-largest consumer of organic products after the USA. 

Summary of the legal situation of EC in the Union: current regulations and amendments for 2021

Organic production in the European Union is regulated and controlled to ensure that all member countries have the same obligations and opportunities. The EU sets the rules of the game in the following regulations:

1. Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labeling of organic products
   
   
2. Commission Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 laying down detailed rules for the implementation
   
   
3. Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls performed to ensure the application of food and feed law
   
   
4. Reglamento (UE) 2018/848 – new organic production regulation (from 2021)
   

Consumer confidence is crucial in the organic food market. Consumers need to be confident that they are buying a product that meets their expectations, and that is why we need an organization that englobes and defines the legal framework for producers and consumers. 

The harmonization of criteria is key to avoid possible confusion for the consumer when buying an organic product. In other words, the consumer has to know that the organic seal guarantees that the regulations have been complied with regardless of the country where the product comes from. In the 2007 regulation, the main objective was harmonization, but the EU is also aware of the enormous agro-climatic diversity that exists in European territories. Therefore, it took a more flexible approach in order to “allow ecological standards and requirements to be adapted to local climate or geographical conditions, to different agricultural practices and stages of development”, always “within the limits of specific conditions established in Community legislation” (see Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007).

In other words, the Member States could allow certain actions, but no one can bypass the rules on organic production. An example of an exception would be the use of “demarcated beds” in Sweden, Finland and Denmark as the National Certification Authorities have permitted their use even though in the 2007 regulation it was specifically regulated that the crop should be linked to the soil. Other exceptions refer to the use of non-organic plant material when no certified organic material has been found; or to the use of a certain component in the preparation of food in a temporary manner since the equivalent component in organic is not available. 

The new legislation, which will enter into force in January 2021, aims to further harmonize production criteria, eliminating derogations, and to control products at all links in the chain. While a better control is being considered, the aim is to reduce the bureaucracy to which farmers are subjected, which means that the EU has a major challenge in finding this balance. In the coming months, we will see what specific provisions this regulation is translated into. 

What changes in the new regulations?

Fewer controls on excellent producers: For the producers that have had a clean record after three consecutive years, controls can be made every two years instead of annually. 

The removal of exceptions: the derogations that had been granted will be progressively eliminated and the framework for new derogations to be minimal, consensual and temporary is established. 

New products: salt, cork or essential oils will have their place in the regulations.

Simplification for farmers: group certification is created for small producers. 

Mixed farms: as long as they are clearly differentiated and delimited, it will be allowed that on the farm there is part organic and part conventional. It is intended that farmers are encouraged to try with part of the farm and not all at once. 

Same import conditions: farmers outside the EU will have to meet the same criteria to export their products to the EU. Instead of establishing equivalences, the principle of conformity will prevail and it will be the EU that establishes it instead of each member state. 

This new regulation was set with very ambitious harmonization objectives and has had to be adjusted throughout the negotiations held for several years until its approval in November 2017. The ratification with votes against by countries such as Finland, Austria or the Czech Republic, and the abstention of Germany and Belgium, gives an idea of how difficult and controversial this new regulation is. 

Note: this article has a second part where we analyze if the regulation of the ecological seal is the same in all countries.