About The Center :: Mission & Goals

Vision
Conversion of agriculture to organic methods, improved health for the earth and its inhabitants, and greater awareness of and demand for organic products.

Mission
To generate credible, peer reviewed scientific information and communicate the verifiable benefits of organic farming and products to society.

Goals

• Promote a new found understanding of the health and other benefits of organic foods and production through a comprehensive set of credible, peer-reviewed scientific studies that highlight and underscore the "organic difference."
  
• Communicate organic benefits to the public and policy makers and focus the attention of mainstream media on the health and other benefits of organics.
  
• Contribute to a significant increase in organic production, consumption and sales by educating a new generation of consumers through effective health benefit focused education.
  
• Develop new financial resources for research into the organic benefit by highlighting and emphasizing the need for additional public and other funding, and directly funding crucial scientific research.
  
• Establish effective strategic collaborations and partnerships between research institutions and individuals to advance our mission.
  
• Serve as a world-wide clearinghouse for this information, tracking research, both past and current, analyze the results and provide them to the public, the media, and government agencies to aid efforts to promote environmental, public health and organic causes.

Principles

• People are recognizing the vital connections between diet, health, agriculture and the environment; how we use this information to make choices every day determines how the Earth is used.
  
• Credible scientific data regularly shows that organic production of food and other products promotes both environmental and human health.
  
• Citizens need credible, peer-reviewed scientific evidence on how organic products and systems benefit human health and the environment in order for more people to choose organic products and thus shift.
  
• Convert more land into organic production. Increasing organic production can protect human health and the natural world by reducing unsustainable practices including the widespread use and abuse of toxic substances.
  
• Consumers, civic organizations, government agencies, and the many businesses that make up the organic chain of custody -- from "seed to table" -- all benefit from having access to credible peer-reviewed scientific information about the organic "benefit." Each plays a key role in the promotion and proving of public and planetary health.