What Organic Means To Producers

What Organic Means To Producers. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

This past year the organic industry seemed to grow and swell in numbers through out the tree fruit industry and Miles McEvoy, Deputy Administrator for the National Organic Program spent some time talking with producers about what they really do.

McEVOY: The USDA National Organic Program implements the Organic Food Production Act which was passed as part of the Farm Bill in 1990. So the first thing we are responsible for is the USDA Organic Regulations. These are comprehensive regulations that cover all aspects of organic agricultural products.

He says they also work to certify various operations.

McEVOY: There’s about 90 accredited certifiers around the world. A little over 50 of those are domestic that operate in the U.S. and about 40 some are international and they certify almost 30-thousand operations. About 17-thousand in the U.S., about 12-thousand plus in foreign countries that are certified under the USDA regulations and therefore can use the USDA organic logo on their products for sale in the U.S.

And he says then the third part is handling compliance and complaints.

McEVOY: About allegations of violations of the National Organic Standards. We conduct investigations, we impose civil penalties and we handle the appeals process.

Finally he says they work with the Standards Board on organic regulations. I’ll have more on this next week.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.