*Encompass principles of organic production for crops, livestock, processing,
handling, and labeling, and establish certification and accreditation
criteria.
*Harmonize standards for the production, processing, handling and labeling of
organic plant and animal products;
*Establish a consensus-based set of standards supported by the United States
organic industry and community, including existing public and private
certification agencies;
*Provide a set of standards to be used to protect consumers and producers
against deception, fraud, and unsubstantiated product claims in the market
place, including misrepresentation of other agricultural products as being
organic;
*Enable producers, processors, handlers, inspectors, and certification
agencies to assess an operation’s compliance to a uniform organic standard;
*Provide a baseline standard for certification of growers, handlers, and
processors as well as the accreditation of U.S.-based organic certification
agencies without precluding certification agencies or governments from
creating more restrictive standards;
*Provide a baseline standard for the negotiation of mutual recognition
agreements between certification agencies; and
*Facilitate equivalence with international guidelines for organic
certification, accreditation and labeling in order to encourage local,
regional, and international trade in organic products.
**********************************
NOTE to all SANET readers:
The AOS draft, all 120 pages, is available in .pdf format at the OTA
website (www.ota.com) There is also an on-line form for comments. As a
writer working on this project I would like to invite all of you to read and
give us your comments, as we are working to make this a consensus based set
of standards. At this point it is already a useful comparative document, as
it represents a compilation of existing standards, NOSB recommendations, OTA
guidelines and previous comments to the USDA, with references to OFPA, CODEX,
and EU regulations, among others.
We have identified a number of areas where different approaches are in use,
and have suggested some alternative options ( see the list on page 119).
We are hoping this process will facilitate more dialog on some of the
unresolved problem areas in organic standards, and provide a unified approach
toward dealing with USDA when the next version of their rule is released.
Sincerely,
Emily Brown Rosen
Technical Director
Northeast Organic Farming Association of NJ
33 Titus Mill Rd.
Pennington, NJ 08534
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