As the National Organic Standards Board opened its semi-annual meeting this week, the USDA announced two appointments to the group’s 15-member board: James Greenwood, a California avocado grower, for the board’s environmental seat, and Eric Schwartz, chief executive of United Vegetable Growers Cooperative, for the seat reserved for processors. The appointments were a surprise, said an organization representing family-size organic producers, because the USDA usually fills vacancies well in advance of NOSB meetings.
“Either this was a rushed process,” said the Cornucopia Institute, “or the process has been in the works and they [USDA] did not make the simple effort to assure that these two board members were present.”
Greenwood, who has a doctorate in microbiology, is an adjunct professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health and has been active in the university’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability. Schwartz has served on a variety of growers’ boards while accumulating 20 years of experience in organic agriculture. He worked for Dole Foods before he was hired in 2014 by the vegetable growers’ cooperative, which is based in Salinas, California.
The NOSB is meeting through Friday in Tucson, Arizona. More about the meeting is available here.