Dear Secretary Vilsack:
I am sending you this letter on behalf of—and signed by—40 former members of the National Organic Standards Board. As I was, 18 of these signers were appointed by you yourself to represent the organic community and advise the USDA in its mission to protect the integrity and transparency of the organic seal in America. This letter is an urgent plea for help and a call for action. We, who have spent so much time working for the success of the organic movement, have deep concerns about the direction of the National Organic Program. This letter is a request for decisive action from the USDA leadership.
The NOSB was created by the Organic Foods Production Act as a partner with the USDA in overseeing the implementation of the National Organic Program. The NOSB has become a once trusted advisor who is now ignored. This is clear by the USDA inaction on the many NOSB recommendations passed since 2010. These recommendations cover critical problems in the National Organic Program. These failures have come at a cost to all of us as the USDA Organic seal is coming to lose the trust of consumers and organic farmers.
We invite you to meet with a small group of us so that we can make clear the growing frustration and grief in the organic community. Our goal is to create change that we can all support. We cannot do that without you.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Francis Thicke,
Organic farmer and member National Organic Standards Board (2013- 2018)
Letter to the Honorable Tom Vilsack
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20250
Dear Secretary Vilsack:
We the undersigned have all served on the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). Each of
us has been appointed by a U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Our tenure on the NOSB has covered
the full span of the NOSB’s existence, from 1992 until the present day.
We are writing to share with you our concern that the integrity of the National Organic Standards
has eroded significantly over the years. In some cases the Standards have devolved from the
original intention of OFPA, as in the example of enclosed poultry porches substituting for
outdoor access. In other cases, a lack of strong enforcement of existing standards has led to
well documented cases of fraud and an economic burden on organic operators who follow the
rules, versus those who do not. We think the erosion of the Organic Standards is in violation of
the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and is undermining consumer confidence in the
integrity of organic food and the confidence of real organic farmers in the integrity of the USDA
National Organic Program.
In the last eleven years, the National Organic Program has failed to successfully bring a number
of key NOSB recommendations to rulemaking. This failure has led to real damage to trust in and
the integrity of the organic program, as the NOP has failed to respond to serious challenges to
the meaning of organic from industry. We urge you to take immediate action on the following
NOSB recommendations;
1. Production Standard for Terrestrial Plants in Containers and Enclosures
(Greenhouses), passed in 2010. This recommendation called for the prohibition of
hydroponic production in the organic program: “systems of crop production that eliminate
soil from the system, such as hydroponics or aeroponics, can not be considered as
examples of acceptable organic farming practices. Hydroponics, the production of plants
in nutrient rich solutions or moist inert material, or aeroponics, a variation in which plant
roots are suspended in air and continually misted with nutrient solution, have their place
in production agriculture, but certainly cannot be classified as certified organic growing
methods due to their exclusion of the soil-plant ecology intrinsic to organic farming
systems and USDA/NOP regulations governing them.” The NOP issued a statement
that they “will develop a proposed rule based on the NOSB final recommendations” on
September 30, 2010. This was followed with inaction until 2014, when they issued the
statement saying that hydroponic production is now allowed in organic certification. This
was followed by a resolution passed by the NOSB in 2016 reaffirming the 2010 NOSB
recommendation.
2. The USDA published a proposed rule to close the loopholes related to ‘Origin of
Livestock’ (80 FR 23455) in 2015. The proposed Rule would clarify that: “After
completion of a one-time, 12-month transition period of an existing conventional dairy
herd (or livestock to form new organic dairy operations), all new dairy animals milked on
the organic dairy farm would need to be managed organically from the last third of
gestation.” Unfortunately, the 2015 rule has never been finalized. Congress included a
provision in the Fiscal Year 2020 Agriculture Appropriations bill requiring USDA to finalize
the long-delayed rule by June 17, 2020. USDA missed that deadline. On October 21,
2020, the NOP announced plans to publish another Proposed Rule to address
enforcement issues raised by USDA’s Office of General Counsel, instead of moving
directly to a final rule as required by Congress. NOP has failed to provide a timeframe for
issuing the new regulations that are fully enforceable.
3. The National Organic Program (NOP) finalized a comprehensive set of animal welfare
standards, referred to as the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) rule in
January 2017. The rule, originally set to take effect in March 2017, was written with
broad input from the organic community, and is supported by the vast majority of
organic farmers, businesses, consumers, and advocacy organizations. The rule was
rejected by the Trump administration. The OLPP should be immediately reinstated in its
final form.
Furthermore, we call on the USDA to take immediate action to enforce those standards which
have been inadequately enforced.
1. The Pasture Compliance Program. Public trust in the USDA organic seal is faltering due
to highly public examples of poor enforcement of the Pasture Rule on large CAFO
operations. The 2017 series of articles in the Washington Post have brought tremendous
scrutiny to this problem. These large producers should be required to be exemplars of
the rule.
2. Grain Fraud. Despite significant Congressional funding to stop fraud in imported grain
certified as organic, there has been little regulatory action taken to alter this failure.
Action should be taken immediately to protect both American farmers and consumers.
While this letter contains key issues, there are other issues of importance not raised here. The
National Organic Program can only thrive if it is built on public trust. This trust relies on the
integrity and transparency of the National Organic Program. We NOSB members and the organic
community have invested years in trying to protect the National Organic Program. We urge the
USDA to act on these NOSB recommendations aimed at enhancing the foundational goals as
spelled out in the Organic Food Production Act.
Signed by the following former members of the National Organic Standards Board:
Michael Sligh (1992-1997)
Robert Quinn (1992-1995)
Fred Kirschenmann (1995- 2000)
Joan Gussow (1996-2001)
Eric Sideman (1997-2002)
Owusu Bandele (2000-2005)
Jim Riddle (2001-2006)
Dave Carter (2001-2006)
Goldie Caughlan (2001-2006)
Ann Cooper (2002-2004)
Dennis Holbrook (2002-2007)
Nancy Ostiguy (2002-2007)
Hubert Karreman (2005-2010)
Jeff Moyer (2006-2001)
Joe Smilie (2006-2011)
Daniel Giacomini (2006-2011)
Jennifer Hall (2006-2011)
Kevin Engelbert (2006-2011)
Steve DeMuri (2007-2012)
Katrina Heinze (2007-2012)
Kristine Ellor (2007-2012)
Barry Flamm (2008-2013)
Jay Feldman (2010-2015)
Wendy Fulwider (2010-2015)
Joe Dickson (2010-2015)
Calvin Reuben Walker (2011-2016)
Robert (Mac) Stone (2011-2016)
Jennifer Taylor (2011-2016)
Colehour Bondera (2011-2016)
Nicholas Maravell (2011-2016)
Zea Sonnabend (2012-2017)
Harold Austin (2012-2017)
Tracey Favre (2012-2017)
Francis Thicke (2013-2018)
Paula Daniels (2015-2015)
Harriet Behar (2016-2020)
Jesse Buie (2016-2021)
Emily Oakley (2016-2021)
Dan Seitz (2016-2021)
Dave Mortensen (2017-2020)
CC: Kelliann Blazek, Special Assistant to the President for Agriculture and Rural
Policy.
CC: House Organic Caucus
Co-Chairs:
Rodney Davis (R-IL)
Peter DeFazio (D-OR4)
Ron Kind (D-W-I3)
Dan Newhouse (R-WA-4)
Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
Members:
Rick Larsen (D-WA-2)
Barbara Lee (D-CA-13)
Ted Lieu (D-CA-33)
Dave Loebsack (D-IA-2)
Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM-3)
Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY-12)
Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY-18)
Jim McGovern (D-MA-2)
Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH-2)
Seth Moulton (D-MA-06)
Jerry Nadler (D-NY-10)
Richard Neal (D-MA-1)
Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-20)
Chris Pappas (D-NH-1)
Scott Peters (D-CA-52)
Dean Philips (D-MN-03)
Mark Pocan (D-WI-2)
Jamie Raskin (D-MD-8)
Tim Ryan (D-OH-13)
Kurt Schrader (D-OR-5)
Adam Smith (D-WA-9)
Steve Stivers (R-OH-15)
Mike Thompson (D-CA-5)
Fred Upton (R-M-I6)
Peter Welch (D-VT-AL)
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3)
Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-1)
Julia Brownley(D-CA-26)
Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24)
James Comer (R-KY-1)
Jim Costa (D-CA-16)
Joe Courtney(D-CT-2)
TJ Cox (D-CA-21)
Angie Craig (D-MN-2)
Danny K. Davis (D-IL-7)
Rosa DeLauro(D-CT-3)
Suzan DelBene (D-WA-1)
Lloyd Doggett (D-TX-35)
Anna Eshoo(D-CA-18)
Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE-1)
Mike Gallagher (R-WI-8)
John Garamendi (D-CA-3)
Bob Gibbs (R-OH-7)
Jared Golden (D-ME)
Glenn Grothman (R-WI-6)
Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA-10)
Eleanor Holmes Nortin (D-At Large)
Jared Huffman (D-CA-2)
Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-7)
Derek Kilmer (D-WA-6)
Doug LaMalfa (R-CA-1)
CC: Senate Agriculture Committee
Stabenow, Debbie (MI), Chair
Leahy, Patrick J. (VT)
Brown, Sherrod (OH)
Klobuchar, Amy (MN)
Bennet, Michael F. (CO)
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (NY)
Smith, Tina (MN)
Durbin, Richard J. (IL)
Booker, Cory A. (NJ)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Warnock, Raphael G. (GA)
Boozman, John (AR), Ranking Member
McConnell, Mitch (KY)
Hoeven, John (ND)
Ernst, Joni (IA)
Hyde-Smith, Cindy (MS)
Marshall, Roger (KS)
Tuberville, Tommy (AL)
Grassley, Chuck (IA)
Thune, John (SD)
Fischer, Deb (NE)
Braun, Mike (IN)
CC: House Agriculture Committee
David Scott, Georgia, Chair
Jim Costa, California
Jim McGovern, Massachusetts
Filemon Vela Jr., Texas
Alma Adams, North Carolina
Abigail Spanberger, Virginia
Jahana Hayes, Connecticut
Antonio Delgado, New York
Bobby Rush, Illinois
Chellie Pingree, Maine
Gregorio Sablan, Northern Mariana Islands
Ann McLane Kuster, New Hampshire
Cheri Bustos, Illinois
Sean Patrick Maloney, New York
Stacey Plaskett, U.S. Virgin Islands
Tom O’Halleran, Arizona
Salud Carbajal, California
Ro Khanna, California
Al Lawson, Florida
Lou Correa, California
Angie Craig, Minnesota
Josh Harder, California
Cindy Axne, Iowa
Kim Schrier, Washington
Jimmy Panetta, California
Ann Kirkpatrick, Arizona
Sanford Bishop, Georgia
Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania, Ranking Member
Austin Scott, Georgia
Rick Crawford, Arkansas
Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee
Vicky Hartzler, Missouri
Doug LaMalfa, California
Rodney Davis, Illinois
Rick W. Allen, Georgia
David Rouzer, North Carolina
Trent Kelly, Mississippi
Don Bacon, Nebraska
Dusty Johnson, South Dakota
Jim Baird, Indiana
Jim Hagedorn, Minnesota
Chris Jacobs, New York
Troy Balderson, Ohio
Michael Cloud, Texas
Tracey Mann, Kansas
Randy Feenstra, Iowa
Mary Miller, Illinois
Barry Moore, Alabama
Kat Cammack, Florida
Michelle Fischbach, Minnesota