Regional Act No. 31 on organic agriculture.

This Regional Act was enacted to contribute towards the protection of consumers' health, to encourage organic and biodynamic production methods in agriculture, the latter forming part of the former, in accordance with EC Regulation 2092/91 of 24 June 1991, as subsequently amended. In its definition of organic products, the Act refers to article 1 of the EC Regulation and to articles 6 and 7 with regard to production standards. The organic farmer is defined as the natural or legal person who produces, prepares or imports organic products for marketing. Production means the operation designed to produce agricultural products in the state in which they are normally grown on a farm; preparation means the operations of processing, preserving, and packaging agricultural products grown organically; importing means the activities used to acquire supplies of products from third countries. A regional Register of organic farmers is instituted at the Department of Agriculture and Woodlands of the Regional Executive Council. Regional Associations of Organic Farmers comprising at least 80 farms using organic production methods and with an annual aggregate turnover of two thousand million lire, are also recognised. The Act also sets up the Regional Commission for Organic Agricultural Activities within the Regional Executive Council, whose functions include encouraging the development of organic farming, issuing opinions on the recognition of Associations and laying down penalties for them and for farmers, proposing methods to be adopted by the Regional Executive Council to control the Associations, etc.
The Organic Farmers Associations control their farmers to ensure that they comply with the provisions of the aforementioned EC Regulation and of this Act. For the purposes of this control, organic farmers must keep all the documentation required to identify the properties and the sources of the raw materials they procure, and all the necessary documentation to identify the purchasers of their products and the properties of those products. They must also show the Association conducting controls in accordance with the provisions of this Act that any of the processed agricultural products and the non-processed products acquired from outside the region that may have been used comply with the provisions of this Act. They are also required to keep the register containing records of all the labels issued and received from the recognised Associations. The recognised Associations are required to issue serial-numbered labels to all the organic producers who have passed the inspection to be used identify their organic products. These labels are withdrawn whenever the results of inspections prove negative. In order to encourage organic farming, organic producers are entitled to the incentives provided under the relevant Community Regulations. All farms using organic production methods and those preparing organic products qualify for the facilities granted under Regional legislation to encourage agro-industrial activities. The Regional Executive Council also funds demonstrations, in the manner and according to the procedures set forth in regional legislation, as well as research, training and technical assistance relating to organic production and product preparation methods.