USDA kills proposal for organic marketing board

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has nixed a proposed rule that would have established a national research and promotion program for certified organic products.

The May 11 announcement brings to a halt the proposed Generic Research Promotion Order for Organics (aka GRO Organic) program, which, as proposed, would have established a check-off program throughout the supply chain of 1/10 of 1 percent of net organic sales and established a 17-member national board consisting of producers, handlers, processors and importers to oversee collection and use of those funds.

The proposed checkoff program was expected to raise at least $35 million annually. Those funds would have been used for promoting organic goods and researching solutions to problems facing the industry, such as establishing consistency in how organic products are defined and labeled.

The Organic Trade Association was the driving force behind the proposal. According to produce industry trade publication “The Packer,” more than 1,400 growers and others in the organic products supply chain pledged support on OTA’s website. However, few large-scale growers of conventional fruits and vegetables committed to the program.

A proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 18, 2017, with a 60-day comment period that ended March 20, 2017. On Feb. 27, 2017, a notice was published in the Federal Register that extended the comment period until April 19, 2017. In response to the rule, USDA received and reviewed more than 14,700 comments filed by producers and other stakeholders.

USDA said the comments reflected a lack of consensus within the industry in support of the proposed program and divergent views on how to resolve issues in implementing the program. Thus it elected to kill the process.

Termination of the rulemaking process removes communication restrictions and allows USDA to engage fully with all interested parties to discuss and consider the future needs of the industry, the department said in release.

Some of the concerns USDA said it took into consideration were the impact of de minimis level exemptions and high-value commodities on the program, how organic promotion would a affect other agricultural commodities, the voting methodology that would be used, the financial burden on small entities and the challenges of tracing imported organic products. Additional concerns were the method of assessment for imports, the assessment of non-food products and products “made with (specified ingredients)” and the paperwork burden on covered entities.

A notice of the termination appeared in the Federal Register on May 11.