USDA Accepting Comments on Organic Rule Amendments

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting comments on the Agricultural Marketing Service’s proposed amendments to organic regulations concerning oversight and enforcement of the production, handling and sale of organic agricultural products. The proposed rule would require the use of National Organic Program Import Certificates for all organic products entering the United States and “[r]educe the types of uncertified entities in the organic supply chain that operate without USDA oversight—including importers, brokers, and traders of organic products.”

The proposed amendment also contains provisions that would clarify “the method of calculating the percentage of organic ingredients in a multi-ingredient product” and “conditions for establishing, evaluating, and terminating equivalence determinations with foreign government organic programs, based on an evaluation of their organic foreign conformity systems.” Comments will be accepted until October 5, 2020.