On a 10-4 vote, the National Organic Standards Board sent back to subcommittee the contentious question whether bioponics, a term covering hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics, are part of organic agriculture, reports Food Safety News. “This means that food grown using hydroponic methods may continue to be certified as organic” if producers meet other criteria for the organic label, said FSN.
According to The Packer, which covers the producer industry, USDA has certified 52 organic hydroponic/aquaponic operations and 69 operations that grow crops in containers. A task force appointed by the NOSB concluded last summer that hydroponics fall outside the parameters of organic farming because they do not use soil to grow crops.
The NOSB was scheduled to decide on the eligibility of bioponics on the last day of its fall meeting. Instead, the board sent the issue of a subcommittee “for more discussion and clarification of how such production processes are defined,” said Food Safety News.
Ahead of the NOSB meeting, the Cornucopia Institute filed a complaint alleging that the USDA wrongly allowed hydroponic and container produce to be sold with the organic seal.
Food Safety News said the standards board voted, 10-3, to remove carrageenan from the list of substances approved for use in organic foods. Extracted from seaweed, carrageenan is used as a thickening agent in foods.