Efforts intensify to regulate organic products

A BIG QUESTION HANGING over the ag. sector this Thanksgiving is how to regulate organic food.

Now, the question doesn’t affect everyone. Conventional food is by far the preferred choice of most Canadians.

But organic is a growing sector. And it feels stymied by its own lack of regulations. Many of its members think more consumers would be more apt to buy organic products if they felt confident that the sector was regulated appropriately.

Readers may remember that the question prompted the sector to issue a report in September called The State of Organics: FederalProvincial-Territorial Performance Report 2017.

In that report, the organic trade association said Ontario is the province with the most ground to gain with organic market consistency across Canada. It also vowed to turn up the heat on the issue this fall.

And that’s what it’s done. MPPs Peter Tabuns and Sylvia Jones have now cosponsored a private member’s bill for organic products regulation in Ontario.

Jones worked with the Organic Council of Ontario to develop the bill. She says she hopes it starts a dialogue with farmers and other stakeholders about how Ontario can align itself with the regulations adopted in five other provinces, and at the federal level.

Starting a dialogue might be all it does for now, considering that private members’ bills don’t usually get too far. But the intention is sound.

In this country, organic production is guided by the Canada Organic Regime, created in 2009. It provides guidelines to the organic sector about what is, and what isn’t, certified organic, and how to produce it. But the regime doesn’t cover claims within provinces.

In Ontario, it is only enforced for products that carry the Canada Organic Logo and those that are exported outside of Ontario.

The Organic Council of Ontario worries, understandably, that without regulation and enforcement, unscrupulous producers might call their products organic when they’re not. The industry – or any industry, for that matter – looks bad when consumers get duped.

A complicating factor though is that some producers – particularly small ones – simply don’t want the trouble of certifying their crops or livestock. They think it’s an administrative pain, busywork, or unnecessary for their customers.

That doesn’t mean they’re being deceitful. Rather, like many farmers, they’re fed up with thirdparty intervention in their operations.

But the upshot is that consumers are left unprotected.

The council thinks the answer is somewhere in the middle, between no certification and onerous regulations. Options could include tailored certification programs for small-scale farmers making organic claims and financial support that would help them do so.

“We know there are many honest, hard-working organic farmers in Ontario who don’t certify. This bill is meant to be the start of a dialogue that leads to a made-in-Ontario solution,” says the council’s executive director Carolyn Young.

Confusion over organic products is not limited to Ontario, nor to the fruit and vegetables that are widely associated with organic production.

For example, according to information from Quebec-based organic giant duBreton, a recent survey showed almost one-third of Canadians either know nothing about or are confused by organic meat. As well, more than 40 per cent are frustrated by the lack of organic meat options in grocery stores.

And in the U.S., legislation is being proposed to beef-up oversight and enforcement of organic standards, particularly for imports, some of which the government thinks may not be truly organic.

That’s not a big problem for Canadian organic producers. Right now, they can’t meet domestic demand, let alone export much to the U.S. But if regulations improve and production increases, all that could change.

In any event, at this time of the year, let’s be thankful for the food we have – conventional or organic – and be mindful of those who aren’t so lucky.