Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ing agents. Under the program, certifying agents will certify production and
handling operations in compliance with the requirements of this regulation
and initiate compliance actions to enforce program requirements.
Three key provisions of the NOP are:
1.
Food producers and processors who wish to market their goods under
an organic label must be certified.
2.
A program was established to certify agencies in the United States
for domestic food production and abroad for producers and pro-
cessors wishing to market organic food in the United States.
3.
Producers were provided with lists of materials and practices that
they could and could not use.
The NOP was a huge step forward for the organic movement. Consumers
could be confident that food labeled organic was actually being produced
using environmentally safe practices. Sales for legitimate organic producers
benefited because unscrupulous individuals could no longer market food as
organic when it had actually been produced using toxic chemicals and envir-
onmentally damaging practices. Furthermore, growers and food processors
finally had specific production guidelines to follow.
Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI)
More work was, and still is, needed to shape organic guidelines. The Organic
Foods Production Act of 1990 required the Secretary of Agriculture to estab-
lish a National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances for organic pro-
ducers. While helpful, the original list, which was amended many times, was
generic. For example, under allowed substances, the list included insecticidal
soaps, but it did not specify what an insecticidal soap was or which soaps
could be used in organic production. Likewise, the microbial insecticide
Ba-
cillus thuringiensis
(Bt) would be allowed as a natural product, although cer-
tain formulations might contain prohibited inert materials.
