Streamlining Organic Certification
June 5, 2013 
Editor’s Note: After reading the following, which was posted on the USDA Blog by National Organic Program Deputy Administrator Miles McEvoy, we contacted his office to get some examples of how this new initiative would be implemented. See sidebar ‘Initiative Implementation,’ for their response.
Consumers purchase organic products expecting that they maintain their organic integrity from farm to market. Under USDA organic rules, organic farmers must demonstrate they are protecting the environment, supporting animal health and welfare, and producing their products without the use of prohibited substances (including synthetic pesticides).
However, farmers have reported spending more time completing forms and maintaining records. A certain amount of records are essential to ensure organic farmers are meeting the organic standards, such as planting non-genetically modified seeds or raising dairy cattle on organic pasture. But, too much focus on paperwork can detract from farming activities that support organic principles, such as conservation and cycling of resources.
To address this, the National Organic Program (NOP) initiated a program aimed at helping reduce the paperwork and other burdensome aspects of organic certification while maintaining high standards, ensuring compliance, and protecting organic integrity.
The “Sound and Sensible” initiative involves identifying and removing barriers to certification, streamlining the certification process, focusing enforcement, and working with farmers and processors to correct small issues before they become larger ones. The overall goal of this new initiative is to make organic certification accessible, attainable, and affordable for all operations.
Five Principles
When developing this initiative, we outlined five guiding principles. The first is efficient processes, eliminating bureaucratic processes that do not contribute to organic integrity. Secondly, we are working to streamline record keeping to ensure that required records support organic integrity and are not a barrier for farms and businesses to maintain organic compliance. Thirdly, we are asking for practical plans, or straightforward Organic System Plans that clearly capture organic practices.
The fourth principle is fair, focused enforcement. We plan to focus enforcement on willful violators, handle minor violations in a way that leads to compliance, and publicize how enforcement protects the organic market. Finally, as always, we put integrity first by focusing on factors that impact organic integrity the most, building consumer confidence that organic products meet defined standards from farm to market.
The NOP has a number of projects underway to introduce “Sound and Sensible” principles related to organic certification. For example, organic certification requires farmers to support biodiversity and conserve natural resources. Some farmers also participate in conservation programs through NRCS. Due to their compatible objectives, the NOP is collaborating with NRCS to streamline participation in both programs. We are also working on a project focused on identifying the key barriers to organic certification encountered by small businesses, and determining paths forward for removing these barriers.
Organic certification ensures the integrity of organic products around the world, and this initiative will make sure the process is accessible, attainable, and affordable for all.
Initiative Implementation
The NOP has a number of projects underway to introduce “Sound and Sensible” principles across organic accreditation and certification processes. Here are some examples:
• New Technical Assistance Instruction — Many certifiers and inspectors worry about being perceived as “consulting” if they try to help their clients come into compliance. This instruction, which will be released this spring, will outline what certifiers and inspectors can and can’t do to assist organic operations.
• Updated Certification Instructions — We are updating our Instructions related to the “Five Steps to Certification,” record keeping, certificates, and other topics to reflect sound and sensible principles based on certifier feedback and accreditation audit results. These will be released as they are completed.
• Auditor Training — The NOP is holding a series of “recalibration” training sessions with NOP accreditation auditors at the end of April. This training will teach our auditors to audit using sound and sensible principles and help increase consistency across our audit team.
• “Removing Barriers” Project — The NOP is currently working on a project focused on identifying the key barriers to organic certification encountered by small businesses, and determining paths forward for removing these barriers. This project has included a number of interviews with certifiers, feedback from the Accredited Certifiers Association (ACA), and discussions with many others in the organic community.
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