Organic Production

April 19, 2012

Organic production of agricultural products has become popular in recent years because consumers have developed a desire to consume foods that they can feel are more naturally produced.  In the United States there are movements to create a more sustainable environment and producing food organically helps contribute to this goal.  Currently, USDA standards dictate that a dairy product produced in the United States can be certified as organic if the animal itself consumed organically produced feed and was not given any antibiotics or hormones.  A lot of farms in the U.S. are converting to an organic production because they can get higher prices for their product.  Demand is fairly high even with a higher production cost, so some dairy farmers are taking advantage of the new market that is interested in organic products.

Recently an agreement was made between the US and EU countries regarding the trade of organic products between the countries involved.  Under this agreement, they will allow organic certified products to be imported/exported with a legal organic certification.  This means that an organic product imported from an EU country would be considered an organic product here, too.  They came to this agreement, effective June 1, 2012, because they felt that their standards for organic certification were similar enough that they could be viewed equally in the consumer's eyes.

 The EU's Organic Certified Symbol

There are a few requirements that will need to be considered, however, because their are a few discrepancies in their certification process.  For example, crops produced using antibiotics in the U.S. cannot be exported to the EU.  Conversely, the U.S. will not accept agricultural products derived from animals treated with antibiotics or aquatic animals from the EU.

For more information regarding the regulations of both certifying entities, please refer to their websites:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/NOPTradeEuropeanUnion

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/home_en

"The EU actively promotes the growth of the organic sector with a wide variety of policies designed to increase the amount of land farmed organically, including government standards and certification, conversion and support payments for organic farmers, targets for land under organic management, and policies supporting research, education, and marketing. The U.S. largely takes a free-market approach: its policies aim to facilitate market development through national standards and certification and federally funded grants that support research, education, and marketing for organic agriculture. "

This was quoted from the article entitled, EU and U.S. Organic Markets Face Strong Demand Under Different Policies.  I included it because I think it is interesting how different mindsets came to a very similar solution.  Do you think one mindset over the other will help make a more successful conversion to an organic market?

Citations:

EU, U.S. sign organic trade agreement. (2012). Retrieved April 19, 2012, from National Dairy Herd Information Association: http://dairybusiness.com/seo/headline.php?title=eu-u-s-sign-organic-trade-agreement&date=2012-02-15&table=headlines

Organic Farming. (2012). Retrieved april 19, 2012, from Good for nature, good for you: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/home_en

United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service. (2012). Retrieved April 19, 2012, from National Organic Program: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/NOPTradeEuropeanUnion

EU and U.S. Organic Markets Face Strong Demand Under Different Policies. (2006). Retrieved April 19, 2012, from Amber Waves: The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources and Rural America: http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February06/Features/feature1.htm