Food Safety Hearings, Auditing the NOP,
Organic and Nutrition, and More
IN THIS ISSUE:
Features
USDA News
Capitol Hill Updates
Duly Noted
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FEATURES
Are New Food Safety Regulations Coming to Your Farm? Attend a USDA Public Hearing this Fall
(From the National Sustainable Agriculture Campaign [NSAC] Weekly Update) The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will hold seven public hearings in September and October to hear public comments on a proposed National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement. The dates and locations of the hearings are below.
AMS scheduled these seven public hearings in response to a formal request by the produce industry to consider a proposal for a national marketing agreement covering food safety practices for leafy greens. The proposal is similar to one in place in California, following the 2006 E. coli outbreaks linked to bagged spinach. The agreement requires participants (mostly processors and handlers) to source leafy greens only from growers who certify compliance with the “Good Agricultural Practices” (GAPs) approved under the marketing agreement. As used in California and proposed nationally, the use of a marketing agreement for selling “public safety” (or just the appearance thereof) is inherently contradictory. OFRF has joined other groups in objecting to the basic concept.
As for the proposed GAPs, they are a mixed bag (so to speak). They include some common sense practices that should be part of all farm operations, but they also include measures that are not scientifically related to improved microbial safety. Overall the GAPs appear problematic for small and mid-sized farms, organic and diversified producers, wildlife and biodiversity. Marketing agreements are voluntary, but handlers that market 99 percent of California’s leafy greens volume signed on to the agreement, meaning that most of the state’s leafy greens growers will have to comply with the agreement’s practices if they want to sell their product.
The hearing schedule is:
- September 22 to 24, Monterey, Calif.
- September 30 to October 1, Jacksonville, Fla.
- October 6, Columbus, Ohio
- October 8, Denver, Colo.
- October 14 to 15, Yuma, Ariz.
- October 20, Syracuse, NY
- October 22, Charlotte, NC
If you are interested in attending a hearing, please contact Tracy Lerman, OFRF Policy Organizer, at tracy@ofrf.org or 831-426-6606 x 108. For more information on the hearings, including location, read the Federal Register notice.
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Reminder—3 Weeks Left to Apply for the Conservation Stewardship Program
If you are an agricultural producer or landowner who wants to be rewarded for the conservation practices on your operation, you still have time to apply for the USDA Conservation Stewardship Program. The deadline to complete the initial application is September 30, 2009. More information, including instructions on how to apply and other helpful resources, are on our CSP Resource Page.
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New on the OFRF Website
OFRF has added several new features and articles on our website that we are excited to tell you about.
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USDA NEWS
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Merrigan Orders Audit for NOP
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan announced that USDA ordered an audit of the National Organic Program (NOP) to improve the transparency of the program and the integrity of the USDA organic label. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal program within the Department of Commerce, will conduct the audit. The institute will review how the program conforms to international standards for accreditation of the 98 agents that certify farms and food production facilities under the USDA organic regulation.
OFRF, along with our friends at the National Organic Coalition (NOC), called for this review during the transition to the Obama presidency at the beginning of this year. The Washington Post called attention to this issue when it published an article claiming that the organic standards were losing their strength and, as a result, consumers were questioning the integrity of the organic label.
For more information, read:
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Deputy Agriculture Secretary Merrigan Pushes for Local and Regional Food Systems
In addition to pushing for transparency at the NOP, Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan also released a memo highlighting USDA programs that support regional food system development. In the memo, called “Harnessing USDA Rural Development Programs to Build Local and Regional Food Systems,” Merrigan says that she wants to be a “matchmaker” between USDA program administrators and those working on local and regional food system development. The memo highlights three Rural Development programs: the Community Facilities Program, the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, and the Value Added Producer Grant Program.
For more information, read Merrigan’s memo on the NSAC website.
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OFRF Endorses Comments Urging USDA to Prioritize Non-GE Plant and Animal Breeding Research
As part of the 2008 Food, Conservation and Energy Act, commonly referred to as the Farm Bill, Congress directed USDA to make classical (non-genetically engineered) plant and animal breeding focused on developing publicly-held cultivars a separate priority area of research within the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), a USDA competitive grant research program that received $201.5 million in FY09. Unfortunately, USDA failed to carry out this mandate, and the AFRI request for applications (RFA) does not have a specific program area focused on this kind of breeding, which is crucial to small scale, sustainable, locally adapted, and organic agriculture.
The USDA is accepting comments on the AFRI RFA until September 14, 2009. OFRF signed onto comments submitted by the National Organic Coalition and the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI). To read the comments, and find out how you can submit your own comments, visit the RAFI website.
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USDA Withdraws Report Touting Benefits of “Organic Biotech”
In May of this year, the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) released a report, entitled “The Unexplored Potential of Organic-Biotech Production,” which touted the benefits of “organic biotech” and recommended that governments allow the use of genetically engineered organisms in their national organic programs. This report alarmed many in the organic movement who worked to keep genetically-engineered organisms out of the National Organic Program. Our friends at the National Organic Coalition met with senior USDA staff. Following that meeting, USDA issued a statement underscoring the prohibition of genetically engineered organisms in organic production and annoucing the removal of the report from the USDA website. For more information, read the statement on the FAS website.
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National Organic Standards Board Meeting in November
The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is meeting from November 3 to 5, 2009, in Washington, D.C. This meeting is open to the public, and individuals wishing to make an oral presentation at the meeting must sign up by October 19. Written comments on NOSB recommendations to the National Organic Program must also be submitted by October 19. For more information, including instructions on how to send comments or sign up to deliver oral presentations, read the Federal Register notice.
Representatives of various organic sectors are appointed to the NOSB to make recommendations to the National Organic Program about whether a substance should be allowed or prohibited in organic production or handling, assist in the development of standards for substances to be used in organic production, and advise the USDA secretary of agriculture on other aspects of the implementation of the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act. For more information about the NOSB, read the NOSB webpage.
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USDA and Department of Justice to Explore Antitrust Issues in Agriculture
Last month, USDA and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced they will hold joint workshops to explore competition and antitrust issues in agriculture, including monopsony, vertical integration, intellectual property and patents, packer ownership of livestock, and retail concentration. Witnesses are invited to provide examples of anticompetitive behavior. The workshops will begin in early 2010 and will be held in Washington, D.C. and other locations around the country. Dates and specific locations have not yet been announced but will be publicized on the DOJ Antitrust Division’s website.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Philip J. Weiser delivered remarks on the issue of competition in agriculture at the Organization for Competitive Markets Annual Conference last August. Read his remarks on the DOJ Antitrust Division’s website.
The DOJ is accepting written comments on this issue, due by December 31, 2009. For more information, including information on how to submit comments, read the USDA press release announcing the workshops.
OFRF is interested in presenting organic producers’ concerns and comments in this process, particularly with respect to seed supplies. Please send any input or comments to Tracy Lerman, OFRF Policy Organizer: tracy@ofrf.org
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USDA Economic Research Service Updates Organic Briefing Room
The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) recently reorganized all of the pages in its Organic Agriculture Briefing Room. The briefing room covers the scope of ERS work on organic agriculture and provides economic research, analysis, and information about the production and marketing of organic products. Highlights include:
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CAPITOL HILL UPDATE
New Leadership in the Senate Agriculture Committee
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) gave up his chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture to take over the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. The new Senate Agriculture Committee Chair is Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). To read detailed analysis of and commentary on the shift in Senate Agriculture Committee leadership, visit FarmPolicy.com.
Harkin's leadership on the Agriculture Committee has been crucial to the organic sector, particularly for the growth of USDA organic research programs and the integration of organic systems within USDA conservation programs. OFRF is grateful to Sen. Harkin for his years of strong advocacy on behalf of organic farmers, and we look forward to working with Sen. Lincoln and her staff.
Appropriations Campaign Update—Funding Organic Programs in 2010
Before Congress left for the August recess, both the House and the Senate passed their versions of the 2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill. This bill determines spending levels for various federal agriculture programs for the next fiscal year. With Congress back in session, the next step in the appropriations process is for a joint House-Senate Conference Committee to reconcile the differences in the two bills. Members of the Conference Committee have not officially been named, but will likely be chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees and other key members of the Appropriations Committees.
OFRF is advocating for the House-passed amount for organic agriculture research ($5 million for the Organic Transition Research Program) and for the National Organic Program ($6.7 million) and the Senate-passed amount for organic data collection ($750,000).
For more information, read:
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Food Safety Bill Heads to Senate
As we reported in our last OFAN update, HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act, passed the House at the end of July, right before Congress went on August recess. The Senate version of the bill will likely be S. 510, introduced by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Judd Greg (R-NH).
OFRF has concerns that some of the provisions in HR 2749 will overly burden small to mid-sized farmers who do on-farm processing, including regulations that may conflict with organic standards. We will alert you through OFAN on the status of this bill and S. 510 (or the Senate counterpart bill if it is not S. 510) as it progresses through the Senate.
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Senate Climate Change Bill Pushed Back
(From the NSAC Weekly Update) In our last OFAN update, we reported that HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, had passed the House in June and that the Senate would likely take up its version of a climate change bill soon after the August recess with the full Senate considering it by the end of September.
However, the timing for Senate consideration of the legislation has changed. Last week, Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and her co-sponsor, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), announced that the draft bill will not be ready until later this month. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not yet established a new timeline for this bill to be taken up by the other committees of jurisdiction.
The White House and congressional Democratic leadership had intended for Congress to approve a climate bill prior to the start of global climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December. That target now seems unlikely to be met.
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DULY NOTED
OFRF Policy Team Seeking Intern for Fall
OFRF is looking for a part-time policy intern in our Santa Cruz office to help us with research, outreach, and administrative support for the Fall of 2009. This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to learn more about organic agriculture policy and gain some work experience. Read the full job description on our website. If you are interested, please send a cover letter, resume, and short writing sample to Tracy Lerman, OFRF Policy Organizer: tracy@ofrf.org.
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OFRF’s Response to Claims Challenging the
Nutritional Benefits of Organic Food
Over the summer, three articles on the nutritional superiority of organic foods were published in academic journals. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published an article claiming there were no added nutritional benefits from organic foods. This article generated significant national media coverage — in the print, trade and food related blogs. Science published a letter from Clancy et al. saying that the scientific literature does not bear out claims that organically grown foods have nutritional benefits superior to conventionally grown foods. Later in the month, a paper surfaced presenting results that contradicted the above two articles. This paper was published in Agronomy for Sustainable Development.
OFRF submitted a letter to Science in response to the Clancy et al. letter, arguing that drawing definitive conclusions about the possible nutritional benefits or lack thereof of organic foods is premature because so few valid studies have been conducted. We also suggest that exploring how agricultural management practices can enhance the nutritional benefits of crops is a more pertinent question than focusing narrowly on nutritional benefits. Read the full letter on OFRF's website.
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Decoding the Stickers on Your Produce
Those little stickers on your produce may be annoying (especially on apples), but the numbers can tell you a little bit about how your fruit and vegetables were grown.
- A four-digit number means it's conventionally grown.
- A five-digit number beginning with 9 means it's organic.
- A five-digit number beginning with 8 means it's genetically modified.
For more information, read this article from Serious Eats.
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Once again, we could not advocate effectively for organic agriculture if we did not have the support of organic farmer advocates such as you. Please send any questions, comments, clarifications, corrections, advice, well-wishes, and recipe ideas to Tracy Lerman, OFRF Policy Organizer, at tracy@ofrf.org.
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