Update on organics

by Marion Nestle on Food Politics here.

On March 02, USDA announced that it was revoking its accreditation of two certifying agencies, Certified Organic, Inc. (COI) and Guaranteed Organic Certification Agency (GOCA).

USDA says COI failed to:

Communicate with hired inspectors about proper procedures or ensure they were adequately trained

Adhere to internal procedures according to their operational manual

Keep confidentiality agreements on file for all employees with knowledge about certification applicants or operations

Indicate on certificates the effective dates for organic certification,

Ensure adequate training for employees about the regulations

Provide clients with cost estimates including inspection fees

Clearly identify the company’s responsibility to pay for any required pre- or postharvest testing

Verify organic system plans against the actual practices of their certified operations

GOCA’s problems had to do with “persistent noncompliance,” including such things as:
 “failure to require clients to use defined boundaries and border zones as required by the organic standards.”

This mayall sound absurdly bureaucratic but it means the certifiers could be overlooking producers’ violations of organic standards.

You can track down the records of such things on the USDA’s website, and see the handful of other such enforcement actions at the National Organic Program’s site.

More here...........................