A series of four workshops beginning on Oct. 27 will focus on the future of organic production in the United States, said the Organic Trade Association and the Swette Center at Arizona State University on Wednesday. “We need everyone seated at the table to successfully plot the next 30 years of organic,” said Swette Center director Kathleen Merrigan, who helped craft the organic food law as a Senate staffer in 1990 and implement it a decade later at the USDA.
The workshops will look at the changing needs of the organic sector, explore ways to improve organics, and discuss how to build on its successes, said the sponsors. Certified organic food accounted for almost 6 percent of U.S. grocery sales last year, with revenues totaling $56.5 billion. Organic fruits and vegetables accounted for more than one-third of overall organic food sales and 15 percent of all produce sold in the country.
Laura Bachta, OTA chief executive, said that over the past several years, “the federal regulatory apparatus has stifled innovation and stalled continuous improvement within the industry. Our partnership with ASU has been created to gather ideas from all corners on ways to reverse this trend and to make organic the best it can be.”
Among the workshop topics will be the role of the National Organic Standards Board, which advises the USDA on operation of the National Organic Program; the process of setting and enforcing organic standards; and “the future of marketing claims and their relationship to organic.”
In December 2017, during the Trump era, the USDA said that it lacked the authority to implement livestock welfare rules for organic farms, and in May 2018, it killed a proposal for a checkoff program to promote organic products.