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USDA Issues Final Rule on Organic Standards
06/26/2006
USDA Issues Final Rule on Organic Standards WASHINGTON— The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a final rule in the June 7, 2006, Federal Register revising the National Organic Program (NOP) regulations for compliance with the Harvey v. Johanns lawsuit and Congressional amendments made in late 2005 to the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA). The original lawsuit was brought by an organic inspector who alleged there were technical inconsistencies between the NOP standards and the OFPA; it sought to disallow use of certain synthetic substances allowed by NOP, require individual reviews of agricultural ingredients not commercially available as organic to meet the 5 percent rule, and require dairy herds to use all organic feed during a one-year transition. When the lawsuit was decided in favor of the inspector, Congress stepped in to amend the OFPA to continue to allow the use of certain synthetic materials (i.e., food additives, processing aids) and other ingredients in food products certified “USDA Organic”.The final rule restores the National List of synthetic materials used in products labeled as “organic” to the pre-lawsuit status of 2002 and clarifies that non-organic agricultural materials may be used as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as “organic” only when such organic products are not commercially available. On the dairy issue, the final rule eliminated the allowance for up to 20 percent non-organic feed during the first nine months of the year of transition to organic production for dairy animals; it allows crops and forage from land that is included in the organic dairy system plan of a dairy farm and is in its third year of organic management to be fed to the converting animals. The Organic Trade Association (OTA) lobbied for the Congressional intervention, alleging the court decision would have seriously hampered the growth of the organic industry. “Thanks to action by Congress, standards about the use of synthetic materials that were debated by the public for over a decade will remain in place, along with the stringent criteria that must be used to evaluate materials for use in organic production,” said Caren Wilcox, OTA’s executive director. “OTA looks forward to closing this chapter, and moving forward on issues such as the Farm Bill and encouraging more farmers to choose organic methods.” The final rule is available online (www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Newsroom/HarveyvJohannsFR05_23_06.pdf).
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