NOC Comments on Far-reaching Proposed Changes to USDA Organic Regs

On October 5th, 2020, NOC submitted comments on USDA’s massive rewrite of the organic regulations, the Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) Proposed Rule, to address fraud in organic supply chains. NOC expressed strong support for the proposed rule overall and noted the many provisions we believe will significantly improve oversight and enforcement, including:

  1. Regulatory changes to require more handling operations to become certified;

  2. Additional labeling requirements to ensure that nonretail containers identify the product as organic and display the name of the certifying agent;

  3. Codification of the requirement that certifiers conduct unannounced inspections for a minimum of 5% of the operations they certify annually;

  4. The clarification that mass balance and trace back audits should be conducted annually for every organic operation as part of the annual inspection process;

  5. A requirement that inspectors and certification review staff have the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to conduct inspections and perform reviews based on the scope and scale of the operations they are inspecting;

  6. A requirement that inspectors and certification review staff complete a minimum of 20 hours annually of training on relevant topics;

  7. Codification of requirements for grower groups;

  8. The inclusion of a definition for “organic fraud” in the regulations;

  9. Consistent implementation of existing and additional record keeping requirements for operations and certification agencies to ensure traceability;

  10. A requirement that certifiers conduct supply chain audits for high risk operations;

  11. A requirement that certifiers share information with one another for enforcement purposes; and

  12. Requirements for certified operations to develop fraud prevention plans.

Gaps Remain

Although the proposed rule makes important strides in addressing fraud, many gaps remain. In our detailed comments, NOC explains the need to:

  • Strengthen requirements related to electronic import certificates;

  • Explicitly require certifiers to report organic acreage data into the Organic Integrity Database at least annually; and

  • Create guidance to define criteria for identifying and overseeing “high-risk” operations.

NOC has also expressed concerns about the need for consultation with the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) on parts of the proposed rule that have not yet been vetted by the NOSB, as required by the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), and has requested that USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) provide the public and the members of the NOSB with a detailed analysis of the SOE rule’s provisions to explain how each of those provisions align with recommendations made by the NOSB.

NOC is calling on the AMS, the USDA National Organic Program, and Customs and Border Protection to update and change practices to catch up to the new challenges we face in organic supply chains. The proposed rule is silent in this area, but NOC makes numerous recommendations regarding opportunities to strengthen the NOP’s accreditation system.

NOC recognizes that the SOE proposed rule is a first step in addressing issues of supply chain traceability, fraud, equal enforcement, and consistency across certification agencies and we have elaborated in our comments on the numerous other actions we would like to see USDA take beyond the SOE proposed rule to further strengthen the USDA organic program.

Read NOC’s full comments on the SOE proposed rule here.

Abby Youngblood