THE ORGANIC STANDARD © Grolink AB Issue 34/February 2004 2

he organic movement in Aus-tria started in 1927 with two pioneer farmers. In 1962 the first organic farmers ’ cooperative was established, and training and exten-sion took on a more formal structure. In 1979 the country’s largest organic farmers ’ association, Ernte, was estab-lished. The first common crop pro-duction standards were defined in 1980 by the farmer associations and the standards were codified in 1989 into the Austrian Codex Alimentarius. In 1994 supermarkets started selling organic produce, and two years late