Cloning, Aquaculture and National List Additions Discussed at March NOSB Meeting
By Harriet Behar
MOSES’ Outreach Coordinator Harriet Behar has been regularly attending the meetings of the National Organic Standards Board and here brings back an update on their recent activities. The NOSB is the citizen advisory council that must approve items before they can be placed on the National List, and recommends regulation changes or guidance documents to the National Organic Program Rule... The decisions Harriet outlines here are ones that the NOSB has made in attempts to continually improve the Rule and add to the National List. Readers should note, however, that the rule and National List recommendations from the NOSB are just that- they may eventually become law, but that process can take a long time. Some past National List recommendations of the NOSB have not been accepted by the NOP. We recommend you do not make current production decisions based on the following recommendations. Always check with your certification agency before using a product or production method you are unsure is allowed in organic management.
This spring’s meeting of the National Organic Standards board took place in Washington D.C., on March 27 and 28, with blooming cherry and magnolia trees enjoyed during the lunch breaks. Last year’s spring NOSB meeting was focused on improving the current standard for pasturing ruminants, and this year’s meeting also had a livestock focus, with much discussion on whether cloned animals and their progeny had a place in organic agriculture. With the mandated change to the organic regulations caused by the Harvey ruling, many items were added to the list of agricultural products “not commercially available as organic” for use in processed foods. The Aquaculture’s Task Force report was also discussed, with an NOSB recommendation finalized on what type of aquaculture products could carry the organic label at this time.
Mark Bradley of the National Organic Program explained that the pasture rule change was currently being reviewed at the Office of Management and Budget, with the delay in getting this priority item complete attributed to lack of staff and a heavy workload. He could not comment on what type of regulation change to expect, but did say that the pasture regulation change will be open for public comment when it is released, sometime before the end of 2007. Mark also discussed the 2 certifier trainings and 1 NOP auditor training that occurred this year. These are conducted to improve consistency between certifiers when interpreting and implementing the organic regulation.
Certifiers were told they needed to change two major items, first, if an agricultural product is present in a livestock feed supplement, then it must be certified organic. Before this change, items such as molasses or soybean oil could be present, not in feed, but in feed supplements in small quantities as nonorganic. However, the NOP has now stated that if it is agricultural, then it must be organic. If a product is used as a medical treatment, and not fed routinely in a feed, then natural agricultural products can be included, and these are still allowed to not be organic.
The second change involved the organic certification of Community Grower Groups. These CGGs are typically found in developing countries and involve many small farmers who join together and get certified as a larger group. Many of these groups only have approximately 20% of the farmers in their group physically inspected in one year (some groups have 100s if not 1000s of farmers), with each farmer in the group getting inspected at least once every 5 years. There is an internal auditing system in place with inspection and review, to verify that everyone in the group is following the rules. The NOP stated that every farm must be physically inspected every year. This will affect much of the coffee, bananas and other tropical organic products in our stores. There is concern that either the prices will have to increase significantly or many groups will choose to no longer be certified as organic.
Personnel within the USDA also encouraged farmers and others to work with congress to encourage more funding in the 2007 farm bill for the NOP and other organic projects.
The NOSB reviewed and modified the aquaculture task force recommendation, removing the controversial allowance for nonorganic fishmeal and fish oil as feed for organically labeled fish. Use of net pens in the ocean was also removed at this time. The recommendation to the NOP allows 100% organic feed (which would be either organic grains for certain species or organic fish meal, which at this time does not exist), and fish can only be raised in a closed system such as a pond or tank. There are types of fish that can be raised on organic grains, and could then be made into organic fishmeal, although this would be very expensive. It is unclear, if and when the current recommendation will be proposed as a rule change, since there are many NOSB recommendations that have not yet been put into the regulation. However, the NOSB has tackled this tricky question, and will continue to revisit the fishmeal and net pen issues, as organic aquaculture continues to evolve.
More than one third of the public comments were on the topic of animal cloning, and if it should be allowed in organic agriculture. Only one commenter, a representative from an animal biotechnology group, requested that this be allowed in organic production. There was quite a bit of discussion that since the FDA seems to be leaning towards not requiring cloned animals to be labeled, that it would be difficult to track the further progeny of cloned animals as it moves from generation to generation (cloned animals are not sterile and can reproduce with other cloned animals or with noncloned animals and produce young). However, in the end, the NOSB recommended that cloned animals, their products and progeny should not to be allowed to carry the organic label. This issue will also be revisited, depending on what type of decisions the FDA makes concerning cloned animals in the U.S. food supply.
Numerous natural colors derived from agricultural products were approved as not commercially available as organic including annatto, beet juice and tumeric used in dairy products as well as various vegetable and berry based colors. Other items that were to be put on the not available as organic list included celery powder, dillweed oil, fish oils, hops, natural casings, whey protein concentrate, inulin and Fructooligosaccharides (these last two items were determined to be natural and agricultural after much discussion) among others. Items that were determined to be available, and therefore must be organic included milled flax seed, dried and crushed poblano peppers and instatized nonfat dry milk.
An antibiotic, natamycin, had been petitioned to be allowed for use only on high moisture baked goods, such as English muffins. This is an antibiotic, derived from natural bacteria, but an antibiotic never-the-less. One member of the NOSB stated that she would find it shocking to read the ingredients statement on a package of organic English muffins and see the antibiotic that she puts into the ears of her daughter, to cure an ear infection. This proposal to allow natamycin was defeated unanimously. This antibiotic (present on a leading brand of nonorganic English muffins), would have been used to extend non-refrigerated shelf life for the muffins from 5 days to 21 or more days. Natamycin is also used extensively on air cured nonorganic cheeses. Pelargonic acid and Ammonium Salts of Fatty Acids, both synthetic herbicides were removed from consideration by the petitioners and were deferred at this time.
The next meeting of the NOSB will be in October, with organic pet foods, outdoor access for poultry, compost and vermicompost, as well as stricter enforcement of the organic seed requirement on the agenda.
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