Lukewarm organic coffee victory

May 9th- Under public pressure, the National Organic Program re-considered its recent decision to abandon the group certification process used by hundreds of thousands of small-scale organic farmers in the Global South.

More than 3,700 consumers and activists wrote to the USDA’s National Organic Program to protest the recent ruling that would have made Organic certification too expensive millions of small-scale farmers and their cooperatives. It worked: The USDA announced on May 2 that certification for grower groups will continue as it has since 2002 until they come up with a new rule at their fall meeting.

The next challenge will be to make sure that the new rule both maintains strict standards for Organic certification and remains accessible to small scale farmers. When the National Organic Standards Board meets in October, any change in the Organic Standard will have a public comment period before they are put in to effect.

See below

May 2, 2007


TO: All USDA Certifying Agents

FROM: Barbara C. Robinson, Deputy Administrator, NOP

After speaking with the Chair of the NOSB, Andrea Caroe, about grower groups, we have come to the following determination in the National Organic Program, effective immediately:

1. NOP will do rulemaking to address the concerns that we have in the Program, but

2. NOP will also collaborate with the Board about this – this will be a topic on the fall meeting agenda for the NOSB. 

3. In the interim, we have the 2002 NOSB recommendation on grower group certification (PDF). We will re-publish this on the website under “Today’s News.” ACAs are reminded that as long as they use the NOSB recommendation for interim guidance, no enforcement action will be taken by the Program related to grower group certification. The NOSB recommendation is quite detailed in scope.