Challenge to Organic Sunset Provision to Proceed

A California federal court has denied the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA’s) motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by several activist
groups challenging aspects of the Organic Food Production Act’s sunset
provision, which governs when substances are removed from the
National List. Ctr. for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. 15-1590 (N.D. Cal.,
order entered September 8, 2016). The plaintiffs objected to how USDA
changed the process to remove a substance from the List, which documents
permitted synthetic substances and prohibited non-synthetic
substances in the production of organic food. Details about the complaint
appear in Issue 561 of this Update.

The court first determined that the plaintiff groups had standing to sue,
then considered whether it had subject matter jurisdiction. USDA argued
the sunset notice changes were not part of a final agency action, but the
court determined the question of jurisdiction and the merits of the action
were so intertwined as to prevent dismissal at this stage.

Issue 617