"national organic program" news and stories

Going above and beyond organic certification by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its National Organic Program, the state of Oregon launched its own guidelines for state wineries in February, 2009. Each of the 20 participating wineries depicts a special logo on its bottles so that they are easily recognizable by consumers. According to recent figures from the Oregon Wine Center, 1.94 million wines have achieved the certification thus far.

After the jump, find our eight favorites from eight different producers that carry the Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine label.

Consumers who have been worried about the enforcement of federal organic food regulations under the George W. Bush administration -- and the stringency of the regulations themselves -- may now have less cause for worry, according to a piece just published in the Washington Post. With Walmart and other big retailers going organic, food labeled "organic" has become big business, with sales of over $24 billion per year.

On February 12, the United States Department of Agriculture published new rules governing the pasturage of livestock whose meat and milk receives organic certification. Previously, these animals only had to have "access to pasturage" -- a regulation so loose as to be virtually meaningless. Now, that ambiguous phrase has been strictly defined: Animals must be permitted to graze at least four months out of the year, and receive 30 percent of their sustenance from that source during those periods.

After a recent exposé, of sorts, that took a very close look over whether the organic label could be trusted, the USDA has finally taken action against an organic certifier that was not performing to the standards that consumers expect. It revoked the accreditation of the American Food Safety Institute International in Wisconsin for multiple violations of the National Organic Program's (NOP) policies. The violations include:

• "Providing certification services to operations to which American Food Safety's president, Karl Kolb, currently provides consulting services.
• Failing to provide a full disclosure of conflicts of interest in its application for accreditation.
• Issuing an organic certification to an operation that used seeds that had been treated with prohibited substances.
• Failing to issue notices of noncompliance and proposed revocation or suspension to a company that had violated NOP regulations."

All of the farms and businesses that were certified by the American Food Safety, which did not appeal on the grounds that "the work didn't fit its business model," must find other certifying agents.

Source