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STRENGTHENING ORGANIC
ENFORCEMENT AT LAST!
How the New Rule will Affect Farmers,
Certifiers, and Inspectors.
By, Harriet Behar
The Organic Farmers Association applauds the
release
of
the
final
Strengthening
Organic
Enforcement rule, a significant improvement to the
USDA organic regulations. All operations will need
to be in full compliance by March 2024. Spurred
by a few high-profile cases of fraudulent organic
sales, this new regulation closes many loopholes
and seeks to enhance the quality of organic audits
and oversight.
Organic farmers will see these changes in the
certification process and the organic supply chain,
as well as being required to do their part in the
Importers and brokers who facilitate trade of organic goods will now
be required to be certified. Import certificates will also be required for
ALL organic products coming into the U.S. and will be checked by
Customs and Border Protection.
prevention of fraud.
NEW SUPPLY CHAIN TRACKING
TYPES OF OPERATIONS NOW
REQUIRING CERTIFICATION
Import certificates for all organic product coming into the
A variety of operations that were exempt from
Protection (CBP), so CBP officials are aware to look for
organic certification, will now be required to go
this organic status on incoming shipments. Organic
through the organic certification process annually.
certification agencies are required to collect and oversee
Operations that trade, or facilitate trade including
production and purchasing information and share this
importers and brokers that own organic product,
with other certifiers in the supply chain for full
even if they do not take physical possession of the
transparency. The National Organic Program maintains a
organic product, are now required to have
listing of all organic operations and their products,
oversight through the organic certification process.
entitled the Organic Integrity Database (OID), which will
U.S. is being integrated with Customs and Border
be improved to manage this data. The acreage of every
The exemptions to organic certification are limited
certified organic operation will be updated yearly, but
to very small operations, retail stores that do not
only certification agencies can view that information. As
process organic products, warehouses that store
part of this transparency, all certifiers will use one organic
products in tamper-proof sealed containers, and
certificate template, so those certificates will have the
brokers that do not take ownership or possession
same information, the same terminology describing the
of products. These exempt operations still must
items, and the same place on the certificate to find the
follow rules that require recordkeeping and legal
information. When an operation has lost organic status,
labeling of organic, prevent commingling with
this information must be posted to the public OID within
nonorganic products and prevent contamination of
72 hours.
organic items. Transportation companies are not
required to be certified, but those certified organic
entities hiring these companies must make sure the
integrity of the organic products is maintained
during transport.
ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION
NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTIFIERS
Certifiers are required to work together on fraud
investigations and to do supply chain traceability
audits on high-risk operations and products on a
regular basis. Other information, such as where
inputs are purchased and production yields, may be
shared among certifiers to verify organic status,
New
Recordkeeping
for Farmers
Strengthening Organic
Enforcement Act
but this information is protected under this rule as
confidential and is not to be released to the public.
NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR FARMERS
Organic farmers are required under the new
regulation to do their part to deter and detect
fraud in the supply chain. All organic operations,
including farmers, must have a fraud prevention
plan in their Organic System Plan (OSP).
Certifiers are now reviewing the OSPs they provide
their farmer clients and will be adding a new
section where the farmer will describe what
systems they have in place to verify and prove the
organic status of all purchased organic labeled
NEW OSP SECTION: Proof of Organic Status
of all Purchased Organic Inputs
Description of systems in place to verify and prove
the organic status of all purchased organic labeled
feedstuffs, seeds, livestock or other items used to
produce your own organically labeled products.
NEW RECORDS: Organic Status through
Growing Season/ Animal Life
Records must verify the organic status throughout
the growing season, the life of the animal, or any
movement of crops or animals.
NEW RECORDS: Organic Status of Last
Entity in Supply Chain
Proof of organic certification of the last entity in the
supply chain before the farmer received that
product. The farmer must also provide their organic
status when the product is sold.
feedstuffs, seeds, livestock or other items used to
produce their own organically labeled products.
Records must be maintained and kept that verify
NEW RECORDS: Bulk Products
The name of the most recent certified organic
operation that owned/and or handled that product,
must be present on the documentation that goes
with that bulk item.
the organic status throughout the growing season,
the life of the animal, or any movement of crops or
animals (off-farm storage or custom heifer
pasturing
for
instance).
Proof
of
organic
certification of the last entity in the supply chain
before the farmer received that product, must be
ORGANIC
ORGANIC
ORGANIC
kept, as well as the farmer providing their organic
status when the product is sold. The point of this
requirement is to keep every link in the supply
chain transparent and traceable.
For bulk
products, the name of the most recent certified
organic operation that owned/and or handled that
product, must be present on the documentation
that goes with that bulk item.
ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION
NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR INSPECTORS
inspecting a new area, such as starting to visit dairy
All inspections will now include a traceability audit
farms, they need another 5 hours of training. People
which shows the organic status from purchase or
reviewing OSPs, organic inspection reports, organic
growing through sale and a balance audit which tracks
materials and other certification duties within the
that enough organic product was present or produced
certification office must have knowledge, skills and
to justify the volumes of final organic product sold.
experience
This would include enough approved seed to grow a
understanding the various types of traceability and
crop, enough organic feed purchased for the number
balance audits present in the organic inspection
of animals on the farm, or enough acreage with
reports. At least 50 hours of training is needed to start
reasonable yields for the number of bushels or boxes
this work, with 10 more hours of training annually.
sold.
Once every three years, every inspector will be
to
perform
their
duties,
including
accompanied on at least one inspection by a
more
certification agency staff member to evaluate their
unannounced inspections equaling at least 5% of all of
expertise on-site; they will also be required to
the certifier’s clients, with no more than 4 hours of
undergo an annual evaluation.
Certification
agencies
must
conduct
notice given before the inspector arrives. Certification
inspections must be done at least once during the
calendar year, even if the timing is different between
years. There have been operations that have gone 1416 months or even longer between inspections, this
will no longer be allowed.
To lessen paperwork, OSP updates are allowed to be
streamlined to only require yearly updates to the
operation’s OSPs where there have been changes,
such as seed purchased or what crops are grown in
which fields, but not what equipment is present, if
nothing new has been purchased.
HIGHER STANDARDS FOR
CERTIFICATION STAFF & INSPECTORS
The SOE rule has greatly enhanced the qualifications
for personnel working within the organic certification
system. All inspectors need at least 2,000 hours of
experience relevant to the areas they will be
inspecting before they are allowed to inspect those
specific types of operations. New organic inspectors
NEW REGULATIONS FOR GROWER
GROUPS
Grower
group
certification,
common
in
many
developing countries, is rare in the U.S. This rule
clarifies that it is allowed domestically.
Grower group certification works best for farmercooperatives of small growers and allows for one
certificate for the group rather than each individual.
But the group must act as one entity. In a grower
group certification, the group is reviewed internally by
the group and the inspections may cover a few groupmember farms each year, but not every operator.
Most grower groups support
organic coffee or chocolate
farmer cooperatives in
developing countries.
SOE
clarifies how
domestic
producers
can utilize
this type of
certification.
must complete at least 50 hours of training in their
first year prior to performing organic inspections
independently. Experienced inspectors must have at
least 10 hours of training every year, and if they are
ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION
ORGANICFARMERSASSOCIATION.ORG | 25
There is no monetary or size limit to who can
OFA expects the requirement for training will most
participate in a grower group, which is most typically
likely lead to higher inspection fees, as well as the
present in developing countries with very small
salaries paid to certification agency personnel. More
landowners to provide a pathway for their low-income
time will be given to each organic certification, both
farms to achieve organic certification.
at inspection and during review to do the detailed
and comprehensive audits, leading to higher costs as
While OFA supports the grower group certification
well. For this reason, OFA has asked Congress to
model and sees a lot of positive ways it can support
provide more money to the organic certification cost
small-scale domestic growers, the new rule does pose
share program, to provide up to $1500 per type of
some concerns. An example of OFA concern under this
production, instead of $750 annually and 100%
rule would be applying it to large vertically integrated
reimbursement rather than capping it at 75%.
poultry operations, where each operation
and birds from the same company that then buys their
STRONG ORGANIC ENFORCEMENT IS
NEEDED
eggs or birds. These individual operations could gross a
Organic popularity in the marketplace continues to
million dollars a year, but might never have an on-site
grow. The stronger oversight found within this rule
inspection. Many international grower groups are
offers both fraud deterrents as well as confidence
farmer cooperatives, but there is no requirement for
that those doing certification activities are skilled
this type of producer control or input into the
enough to detect fraud. Those doing the hard work of
management of the grower group in the Strengthening
organic production deserve strong enforcement of
Organic Enforcement rule.
the organic label.
is run by an individual family, and they all purchase feed
RISE IN CERTIFICATION COSTS?
OFA is concerned the implementation of the rule will
cause the cost of organic certification to rise
significantly. While the NOP has assured OFA that this
rule is not intended to negatively affect small
Harriet Behar runs organic Sweet Springs
Farm in Gays Mills, Wisconsin. She serves
on the OFA Governing Council and Policy
Committee and has been involved with
federal, state and local policy advocacy for
over 30 years.
operations, it is something OFA will be watching. The
highest risk for fraud comes from larger operations
because they put more product into the marketplace,
and small farms should not bare the financial burden of
their increased impact on market integrity.
This article was supported through the USDA TOPP Program of the
USDA Organic Transition Initiative and is administered by the USDA
Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP).
ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION