News
USDA weeding out bad organic players
More than 60 percent of organic operators in the Black Sea
region since 2016 have lost certification through the National Organic Program after
reports of fraudulent activity.
“This heightened oversight and enforcement since 2016 has resulted in at least 180 operations in that region losing their organic certification.”
During a House Ag Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Under Secretary Greg Ibach testified about organic enforcement and 2018 Farm Bill program updates.
“We’ve seen imports drop from that region from where they were to about half of all the imports of those commodities coming in a few years ago to where they’re now only about of 21 percent of the imports coming in.”
Chairman Collin Peterson pressed on how organic standards
are upheld in other countries to which Ibach said audits are performed.
“When those numbers look like they’re not lining up, that gives us reason to peruse the certifiers and the farmers.”
Ibach says as international organic suppliers lose their certification;
it opens the door for increased domestic opportunities.
The USDA inspects five percent of organic farms and businesses each year in addition to complaints to protect the integrity of the organic label.
