| WASHINGTON, D.C,
Posted August 26, 2006: Organic dairy farmers
from around the nation converged on Washington for the
semiannual meeting of the USDA's National Organic Standards
Board (NOSB). The dairy producers attended the August
15–17 meeting to show support for a NOSB recommendation
that would make pasture access a requirement to organic
dairy certification. The farmers were hoping to get a
decision from the National Organic Program (NOP) on the
pasture recommendation but the NOP was not ready to rule
one way or another. Instead they returned the pasture
rule change recommendations saying the language was unclear
and they lacked "regulatory justification" much
to the ire of the producers in attendance.
"This is a disrespectful process,” California
organic dairyman Tony Azevedo said after the meeting
which took place at the posh Mandarin Oriental Hotel
in central Washington. "The USDA has been looking
the other way since 2000 as corporate investors launch
more and more of these ‘organic’ CAFOs [confined
animal feeding operations].”
While, many were disappointed with the decision, NOSB
Chairman Jim Riddle kept things in perspective, “They
were not rejected. They were returned for further work,”
he said in an email, “The NOSB Livestock Committee
will revise the recommendations and expand the "rationale"
section to include a complete regulatory justification.”
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