An update on CCOF’s discussion about whether it should continue to certify hydroponic operations as organic.
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An update on CCOF’s discussion about whether it should continue to certify hydroponic operations as organic.
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A look at what is the Regenerative Organic Certification and why the USDA organic seal may lose its status as the gold standard in our industry.
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The USDA is hiring multiple Accreditation Auditors and Investigative Specialists — positions needed more than ever.
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A final rule published by the USDA now requires the use of certified organic flavors in certified organic products when they are commercially available.
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While the USDA might characterize its new rule to combat fraud as “game-changing,” others would classify it as “long overdue.”
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Some advocates are working to close a loophole that they say has created unintended consequences, including destruction of vulnerable ecosystems anathema to the label’s promise.
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Dr. Bronner’s Cosmic Engagement Officer (CEO) talks about why the new certification is so meaningful for brands and consumers, and how Dr. Bronner’s is getting involved.
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This gives credence to the idea that organic products certified through Regenerative Organic Certification and The Real Organic Project can charge slightly more for their products — an argument that I have been making for quite a while.
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Many organic farming and trade groups have signed a joint letter urging Secretary Sonny Perdue to support the proposed Origin of Livestock rule and to end the delay in issuing a final rule.
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The trade association stated that USDA acted in an unlawful and arbitrary way when it killed the organic animal welfare livestock standards.
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Organic Consumers Association and OrganicEye are calling for the National Organic Standards Board to ban celery powder in organic because of its carcinogenic effects in meat. OCA’s petition is here and OrganicEye’s petition is here.
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Beginning in December, U.S. law states that ‘non-synthetic flavors’ may be used when organic flavors are not commercially available, while new rules in the EU regarding organic produce come into effect in January.
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OFARM’s former executive director John Bobbe and Cornucopia’s Anne Ross have joined forces to again impress upon the USDA’s National Organic Program that the import crisis is ongoing and that the agency has not done enough to stop it.
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U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said this past week that loopholes in federal organic regulations are hurting small organic dairies, and he vowed to close them.
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The Real Organic Project’s Dave Chapman discusses why hydroponics is such an enormous problem for our industry and how large scale industrial producers are taking over the USDA organic label.
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Neal Laferriere, an organic farmer at Blackberry Botanicals in West Virginia, wants to know what his organic certifier is hiding and not being fully transparent?
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A fifth farmer has pleaded guilty in a massive organic grain fraud case that involved at least $140 million in sales.
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At the recent National Organic Standards Board meeting in Seattle, USDA officials faced serious pressure about the use of glyphosate in hydroponic operations.
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Calling food grown without soil-based nutrients “organic” amounts to fraud, say some organic farmers.
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A second Missouri man has been charged for selling fraudulent “organic” grains, which made their way throughout the entire country.
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Organic farmers and animal welfare advocates have won access to government documents — which have been kept hidden up until now — in their lawsuit against the USDA.
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The Real Organic Project has uncovered that some “organic” hydroponic operations are being built on land that has been doused with herbicides, including glyphosate — something that the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) is allowing.
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Driven by the allowance of hydroponics and factory farms in industry, the backers of The Real Organic Project aim to reclaim the movement that has been co-opted from them.
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The USDA has been allowing hydroponics in organic — a complete violation of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. This morning, Center for Food Safety filed a legal petition with the USDA to stop this from happening. We will be covering this development in much more detail in next week’s Organic Insider.
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