Vegan World Alliance rejects ISO-23662

Vegan World Alliance rejects ISO-23662素食主义者世界联盟拒绝ISO-23662
Vegan World Alliance News June 7th 2020
The practice of astroturfing—hiding who is really behind the message—is being used by those who profit from the killing, torture, cruelty and harm of animals. Because of this, it’s imperative that the vegan community remains vigilant. We must, at all costs, prevent a situation where products and services are undeservedly labelled vegan, because that brings us no closer to achieving our vision than we are today.

Vegan World Alliance rejects ISO-23662

One could mistakenly believe that a standard that is widely adopted is the best and most rigorous one. Nothing could be further from the truth. Corporations are legally bound to maximize profits for shareholders; when considering which vegan standards to adopt, their main criterion is not whether it best achieves the vegan vision, but which one will cost the least to implement. Unfortunately, this translates into which vegan standards have the least restrictions and can be implemented with the least changes to corporations’ current behaviours.

If vegan organizations do not work together to establish a common international standard—and if people who self-identify as vegans do not make it clear that deficient standards will not be tolerated—corporations will continue to support standards that are filled with loopholes so they can persist in exploiting animals to maximize profits. The efforts from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Working Group 23 to redefine what is suitable for vegans, are in fact unacceptable to vegans.

As the standard will be published soon, we are going public with why it is inconsistent with the shared vision of the members of Vegan World Alliance and why, effective immediately, we are banning ISO-23662 and what it means.

ISO-23662 allows the following:

Animal testing of ingredients when required by regulatory framework (the standard does not define what “required” means; coupled with the fact that the standard does not include any compliance requirement means that for all intents and purposes testing on animals is allowed)
Animal testing when not conducted by a food business operator (FBO)
Animal testing when conducted through a third party with or without an explicit request
Non-human animal labour
GMO using animal genes or animal by-products
Packaging made from animals or animal by-products
No compliance requirements
The first point is crucial. Many if not all corporations would have us believe that animals used for testing purposes are not killed just for the pleasure, but that all animal testing they conduct is required. Therefore, the first point basically condones the status quo and current practices will continue unchanged.

The last point is also important. As mentioned, corporations seek to maximize profits and any legitimate standards that could be used to self-certify should ensure, in part, that the strong interest to generate profit does not overrule compliance. As it stands, however, corporations wanting to self-certify their product under ISO-23662 could decide to have no compliance structure at all or merely need the agreement of compliance from two of their accountants—people who typically are only interested in the bottom line. With this sort of lax standard, it’s reasonable to assume that this decision could potentially be made by flipping a coin.

In light of all the points above, ISO-23662 section 4.5 is really a standard defining what a claim of “100% plant based” would entail.

We understand the difficulty for small businesses who want to manufacture products that fit their ethical beliefs, when they have little control over their supply chain and must deal with all its problems. However, some of those present in ISO WG 23, including some of the largest packaged food manufacturers in the world, do not get imposed a supply chain; they are part of the problem as they collectively shape much of the supply chain we see today.

Many of the people involved in drafting ISO-23662 are directly or indirectly paid by large food manufacturers, have no connection with the vegan community, and know very little about what it means to be vegan. This is unacceptable. This is why the Vegan World Alliance is working on a draft standard which will ensure that over time, as more and more people choose food certified vegan, our vision will come closer to being realized. Nevertheless, this travesty requires that we act now. To that end, we are banning ISO-23662.

Effective immediately:

Any products or services that make a claim under ISO-23662 will not be certifiable by us
Any certifying organization that uses ISO-23662 will not be allowed to be dually certified by us
Any corporation, or wholly owned subsidiary of said corporation, which makes at least one claim under ISO-23662 will not be eligible to certify any products or services by us
Those actions are necessary because in our view there is no legitimate use of standard ISO-23662. Any organization that makes use of this standard for the purpose of making a vegan claim can only be doing so to allow the killing, torture, cruelty, harm and exploitation of animals. They are profiting from consumers who are being misled into thinking that the vegan products and services they are choosing do not exploit animals. This is highly unethical and something we will not tolerate.

We strongly suggest any businesses that wish to make a “vegan” claim under ISO-23662 change it to a “100% plant based” claim.

ISO needs some serious reform if it is to get involved in fields traditionally dominated by charitable organizations and nonprofits. In many countries, organizations wishing to be members of a national organization must pay yearly membership fees and this discriminates against charitable organizations that do not have the same means as for-profit corporations. Furthermore, not only are fees a discrimination for charitable organization, but unlike for-profit corporation who pay their employees to take part in meetings, most charitable organization are run by volunteers; for many, even if there were no fees, it would be difficult for their experts to fully participate.

The experience of one of our members in the Netherlands (NVV) is a good example of the discrimination against charitable organization from ISO and national bodies. In October 2018, the Dutch standard organization (NEN) contacted NVV to ask whether they would be in favour of an ISO standard for foods suitable for vegans (ISO-23662). NVV had less than two weeks to discuss, but they responded positively.

At the end of December 2018, after having received no reply from NEN, the Federation of the Dutch Food Industry (FNLI) had already been nominated by NEN as a representative of the Dutch standards committee. When NEN was questioned about this, it was discovered that a meeting was held without NVV present when this was decided. At the beginning of 2019, NVV attended a meeting at NEN headquarters about ISO-23662 and objected to this. In response, NEN indicated that it would be a representative, and NVV reiterated that they intended to participate as a knowledge organization.

It was later revealed that the food industry representative was from Nestlé. This was further complicated by the fact that Dutch standards committee members were obligated to pay 2,500 euros per year to participate, which led many to drop out.

The result is that the Dutch standards committee, tasked to work on a standard for food suitable for vegans, does not include any vegan experts, and this is unacceptable.

The experience of another of our members, the Vegan Society of Canada, was not much better. While they were in the working group, they were completely ignored; ultimately, it was the food manufacturers who dictated what is suitable for vegans. Another unacceptable outcome.

In addition, as consumer preferences shift, for-profit corporations wishing to increase their profits are increasingly trying to redefine existing concepts to their advantage. Besides veganism, we have seen various other standards fall prey to this problem, like those pertaining to the circular economy. It should be of grave concern to any reputable standard organization that people with no knowledge of a subject matter be allowed to give their opinion, let alone draft international standards.

We strongly suggest that standard organizations make memberships affordable for charitable organizations and nonprofits, as well as ensure that only subject matter experts are allowed to take part in the drafting of standards. It goes without saying that only vegan organizations and the broader vegan community are qualified to draft standards pertaining to what is suitable for vegans.

This is why we are reiterating our call for vegan organizations that share our vision and mission to join the Vegan World Alliance so we can work together on issues of importance to our community.

 

 

素食主义者世界联盟拒绝ISO-23662
素食主义者世界联盟新闻
2020年6月7日
那些从动物的杀戮,酷刑,残忍和伤害中受益的人正在使用草皮草的作法(隐藏真正在信息背后的人)。因此,素食社区必须保持警惕。我们必须不惜一切代价防止出现产品和服务被纯素标记为素食主义者的情况,因为这使我们比今天更接近实现我们的愿景。

人们可能会错误地认为,被广泛采用的标准是最好,最严格的标准。没有东西会离事实很远。公司在法律上有义务为股东带来最大利润;在考虑采用哪种素食标准时,其主要标准不是能否最好地实现素食愿景,而是实施成本最低的标准。不幸的是,这转化为纯素食标准具有最少的限制,并且可以以对公司当前行为的最少更改来实施。

如果纯素食组织不共同努力建立共同的国际标准-并且如果自我认同为纯素食者的人没有明确表示不会容忍缺乏的标准,则企业将继续支持充满漏洞的标准,以便他们能够坚持开发动物以获取最大利益。实际上,国际标准化组织(ISO)第23工作组重新定义适用于素食主义者的食品的努力实际上是素食主义者无法接受的。

随着该标准即将发布,我们将公开其为何与素食主义者世界联盟成员的共同愿景不一致,以及为何立即生效的我们禁止​​ISO-23662及其含义。

ISO-23662允许以下内容:

在监管框架要求下进行成分的动物测试(标准未定义“必需”的含义;加上该标准不包含任何合规性要求的事实意味着,对于所有意图和目的,都允许对动物进行测试)
非食品经营者(FBO)进行的动物测试
在有或没有明确要求的情况下通过第三方进行的动物测试
非人类的动物劳动
使用动物基因或动物副产品的转基因生物
由动物或动物副产品制成的包装
没有合规要求
第一点至关重要。许多公司(如果不是所有公司)会让我们相信,用于测试目的的动物并不仅仅是为了娱乐而被杀死的,而是他们进行的所有动物测试都是必需的。因此,第一点基本上是原谅现状,目前的做法将继续不变。

最后一点也很重要。如前所述,公司寻求最大程度地提高利润,任何可用于自我认证的合法标准都应部分确保产生利润的强烈利益不会推翻合规性。但是,按照目前的情况,希望根据ISO-23662进行产品自认证的公司可能会决定根本没有合规性结构,或者只需要两个会计师(通常只对底线感兴趣的人)的合规协议即可。 。使用这种宽松的标准,可以合理地假设可以通过掷硬币来做出此决定。

鉴于以上所有要点,ISO-23662第4.5节实际上是定义“ 100%基于植物”的主张所要包含的内容的标准。

我们了解小型企业想要制造符合其道德观念的产品时遇到的困难,因为他们对供应链几乎没有控制权,必须解决所有问题。但是,ISO WG 23中存在的一些企业,包括世界上一些最大的包装食品制造商,并未受到供应链的约束。它们是问题的一部分,因为它们共同构成了我们今天看到的大部分供应链。

参与ISO-23662起草工作的许多人都是由大型食品制造商直接或间接支付的,与素食主义者社区没有任何联系,并且对素食主义者的含义了解甚少。这是无法接受的。这就是为什么素食主义者世界联盟正在制定一项标准草案的原因,该标准将确保随着时间的推移,随着越来越多的人选择食品认证的素食主义者,我们的愿景将越来越接近实现。但是,这种怪异要求我们立即采取行动。为此,我们禁止ISO-23662。

立即生效:

我们根据ISO-23662提出索赔的任何产品或服务均不予认证
我们不允许任何使用ISO-23662的认证组织进行双重认证
根据ISO-23662至少提出一项索赔的任何公司或该公司的全资子公司将无资格对我们的任何产品或服务进行认证
这些行动是必要的,因为我们认为没有合法使用标准ISO-23662。任何出于素食主义者主张而使用此标准的组织都只能这样做,以允许杀害,折磨,残忍,伤害和剥削动物。他们从被误认为他们选择的纯素食产品和服务不利用动物的消费者中获利。这是极不道德的,我们不会容忍。

我们强烈建议任何希望根据ISO-23662提出“纯素食”要求的企业将其更改为“基于植物的100%”要求。

ISO要想进入传统上由慈善组织和非营利组织主导的领域,就需要进行认真的改革。在许多国家/地区,希望成为国家组织成员的组织必须每年缴纳会员费,这歧视了慈善组织,而慈善组织的手段与营利性公司不同。此外,收费不仅是对慈善组织的一种歧视,而且与营利性公司不同,后者向员工付费参加会议,而大多数慈善组织都是由志愿者经营的;对于许多人来说,即使不收取任何费用,他们的专家也很难充分参与。

我们在荷兰(NVV)的一位成员的经验很好地说明了ISO和国家机构对慈善组织的歧视。2018年10月,荷兰标准组织(NEN)与NVV联系,询问他们是否赞成适用于纯素食食品的ISO标准(ISO-23662)。NVV的讨论时间不到两周,但他们做出了积极回应。

在未收到NEN答复的情况下,2018年12月,荷兰食品工业联合会(FNLI)已被NEN提名为荷兰标准委员会的代表。当向NEN询问此问题时,发现在决定该会议时没有NVV在场的情况下举行了会议。在2019年初,NVV参加了NEN总部关于ISO-23662的会议,并对此表示反对。作为回应,NEN表示将担任代表,NVV重申他们打算以知识组织的身份参与。

后来发现,食品行业代表来自雀巢。荷兰标准委员会成员有义务每年支付2500欧元参加会议,这使许多人辍学,这使情况更加复杂。

结果是负责制定适用于纯素食食品标准的荷兰标准委员会不包括任何纯素食专家,这是不可接受的。

我们另一个成员加拿大素食协会的经历并没有好得多。当他们在工作组中时,他们被完全忽略了。最终,食品制造商决定了什么是素食主义者。另一个不可接受的结果。

此外,随着消费者偏好的变化,希望增加利润的营利性公司越来越多地试图将现有概念重新定义为其优势。除了素食主义,我们还看到其他各种标准也成为解决这一问题的牺牲品,例如那些与循环经济有关的标准。任何声誉卓著的标准组织都应该非常关心的是,允许不了解主题的人发表意见,更不用说起草国际标准了。

我们强烈建议标准组织使慈善组织和非营利组织能够负担得起会员资格,并确保仅允许主题专家参与标准的起草。毋庸置疑,只有素食主义者组织和更广泛的素食主义者社区才有资格起草有关适合素食者的标准。

这就是为什么我们再次呼吁素食主义者组织加入我们的愿景和使命,加入素食主义者世界联盟,以便我们能够在对我们社区至关重要的问题上共同努力。

如侵联删未允勿转:认证生态网 » Vegan World Alliance rejects ISO-23662

赞 (10) 打赏

评论 0

  • 昵称 (必填)
  • 邮箱 (必填)
  • 网址

觉得文章有用就打赏一下文章作者

支付宝扫一扫打赏

微信扫一扫打赏