Organic agriculture is a vital aspect of the ag sector’s bottom line, and the industry is working to ensure continued efficiency.
Scott Rice, senior director of regulatory affairs for the Organic Trade Association (OTA), described updates to the organic rule at the recent USDA Ag Outlook Forum.
“Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) is the most significant update to organic regulations since the creation of the National Organic Program (NOP),” said Rice. “It marks a huge change for our $70 billion industry and brings significant measures to continue to uphold the organic label. SOE is the result of successful advocacy and engagement at the trade association, which played a critical role in the regulation becoming a reality.”
USDA organic regulations are different from most other agricultural regulations. “More than 20 years ago, we were seeking consistency in the market and a single, trusted label,” he said. “It’s a voluntary regulation. Businesses opt in to take advantage of market opportunities offered by organic. It’s a market open to operations that may not be wholly organic – many members are split and produce both organic and conventional product.”
OTA’s priority was to advance the rule via successful legislative efforts in the 2018 Farm Bill that authorized the key provisions of SOE. The group’s engagement with the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) regarding recommendations for the regulation was key to the accomplishment. The NOSB is a 15-member federal advisory committee that advises the USDA Secretary on all aspects of organic agriculture.
The rule was published in January 2023, underwent a 14-month implementation period and was in full enforcement in March 2024. Rice admitted the final rule is a lot to digest for all involved in organic production and certification, and he’d like to see more regular updates to the regulations that would allow trade and certification to adapt and incorporate changes into systems and business practices.
SOE closes gaps in current regulations through consistent certification. “It’s building practices to detect and prevent fraud and improve the transparency and traceability of organic products across the supply chain,” said Rice. “It protects organic integrity to support continued growth of the organic market.”
The rule strengthens organic with a few key changes: Other than several narrow exemptions, nearly everyone in the supply chain must be certified. “It requires exporters and importers of organic product into the U.S. to be certified,” Rice said. “For imported products, NOP import certificates are required regardless of the country of origin or how the product is packaged. These are generated by USDA’s organic integrity database, which holds all operations certified to USDA organic standards as well as some foreign partners.”
The rule also requires certified operations and certifying agents to incorporate supply chain traceability and fraud prevention into practices, and all certified operations must develop a fraud prevention plan.
Domestic organic growers have a fairer market with the implementation of Strengthening Organic Enforcement. Photo courtesy of Plum Granny Farm
Another change is the requirement that all non-retail containers, regardless of size, shape or use, are labeled with information that identifies the contents as organic. Containers must also include unique information linking the container to documentation.
Under SOE, organic certificates are undergoing a unifying makeover. “Appearances vary depending on the certifying agent,” said Rice. “SOE requires certifiers to generate certificates from the integrity database. We had quite a mélange of certificates, which made verification more difficult and to know what was real and what was not.”
To understand SOE, it’s important to understand handling. “‘Handle’ is to sell, process or package agricultural products,” said Rice, “including but not limited to training, facilitating, sale or trade on behalf of a seller or oneself, importing and exporting, combining, aggregating and culling.” This definition helps tighten exemptions and certification.
SOE has been well-received. “For many already in the organic supply chain, it was a long time coming and a welcome change as it provided greater transparency,” said Rice. “But I spent a lot of time talking with folks new to organic who were not aware their product was subject to the new regulation.”
Because SOE removed exemptions for much of the supply chain, many operations that found the rule applied to them flooded certifiers with applications, bringing additional implementation challenges.
While a 14-month implementation period seems like ample time, Rice said it was an aggressive timeline given the scope of changes. “As trade became aware of the new requirements and began asking questions or seeking assistance, certifiers were in the midst of incorporating changes into their own systems,” he said. “They experienced a huge draw on resources and were sometimes hard-pressed to respond to the demand.”
Some established, certified organic operations have experienced increased oversight and longer inspection times. “To some degree this is by design because the point of SOE was to introduce greater oversight,” said Rice. “But it shouldn’t mean an increased burden on smaller operations or those that have successfully maintained integrity through the years.”
The rule requires certifiers to take a risk-based approach and identify high-risk operations to help direct supply chain traceability audit, said Rice. “But is high-risk uniformly applicable across the whole supply chain? It’s varied with different commodities and supply chains, so trade and certifiers are coming to terms with understanding what those mean. Consistency may not mean the same approach for everyone,” he explained.
Rice said so far, organic is meeting SOE goals of improving transparency and traceability of organic products, protecting organic integrity and affirming and upholding consumer trust.
“The start may have been a bit stressful, but the community is still adapting and we’re seeing the road smooth out,” said Rice, adding that the results are positive. “OTA and members are looking forward to a continued public-private partnership, which is key to the success of organic. We’re working together to ensure integrity and public trust in the organic seal.”
by Sally Colby
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