Argentina: Argencert founder Laura Montenegro passed away

On Saturday October 28, Laura Montenegro passed away in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was one of the international leaders of the organic sector. She pioneered third party certification in Argentina and built up her company, Argencert, into one of the significant certifying bodies, writes IFOAM. Under her leadership, Argencert enabled organic producers in Latin America to have market access to the important world markets such as the USA, the European Union and Canada. She attended all the major international organic trade shows, such as Biofach Nuremberg, where she had an Argencert booth that promoted the produce of Argentinian farmers and processors.

A farewell note at the Argencert website says: „She always contributed to it with her actions from the national and international institutions side and with her daily work with organic producers. With her incredible energy, she positioned our country as a benchmark in the organic agriculture world. Laura created Argencert, a model company, recognized throughout the world for its strength and credibility.“

She also was actively involved with IFOAM – Organics International and a member of the Nominations Committee that encouraged good candidates to nominate for the IFOAM World Board. She participated as a voting member in the IFOAM General Assemblies (GA). As well as electing the World Board, the GA also votes on motions that set the direction of IFOAM and the global organic sector.

Laura and her husband Steve Bartolo, started stewardship of their own avocado and mango farm in Febuary 2014 in Upper Kandanga, Queensland, Australia and immediately started the transition to organic certification. She sold Argencert so that she could be actively involved in running the farm. The time she spent with her husband on their farm were some of the happiest times in her life. She loved the farm and farm work and they had great plans to build it into a highly productive, multi-functional, multi-crop enterprise and demonstrate this for the world to see.