The Organic Trade Association (OTA) says it will continue to fight against what it has called an “assault on organic” by the Trump Administration.
The American industry body says it is “dismayed” that the US Department of Agriculture is to withdraw a rule – created in the last days of the Obama Government – which would have strengthened rules on animal welfare under the US National Organic Program (NOP).
In November the USDA announced that it would delay implementation of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices Proposed (OLPP) final rule, (originally scheduled to become law in March 2017) until March 2018. But in December the Department said that it proposes to withdraw the rule entirely.
Justifying its decision, the USDA claims that the animal welfare rule exceeds the scope of the NOP and is legally flawed. In an official notice it says: “Nothing in [the statute] authorizes the broadly prescriptive, stand-alone animal welfare regulations contained in the OLPP final rule.”
The OTA, which has launched a lawsuit against the USDA, said in a statement: “This groundless step by USDA is being taken against a backdrop of nearly universal support among the organic businesses, and consumers for the fully vetted rules that USDA has now rejected. By the department’s own count, out of the more than 47,000 comments the department received in the last public comment period for the regulation, 99% were in favour of the rule becoming effective without further delay on Nov 14. USDA noted that of those 47,000 comments, only 28 supported withdrawing the rule.
“It makes no sense that the Trump Administration would pursue actions that could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative, creating jobs, and improving the economies of our rural areas”
“It is against this overwhelming public input that USDA ignores growing consumer demands for food transparency. Consumers trust that the Organic seal stands for a meaningful difference in production practices. It makes no sense that the Trump Administration would pursue actions that could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative, creating jobs, and improving the economies of our rural areas. Most striking is the administration’s continued confusion that organic standards are mandatory rather than voluntary.”
Anticipating that the the USDA will seek to kill the regulation, the OTA has vowed to fight on. “We will continue our fight to uphold organic standards, that this Administration continues to wilfully ignore by repeatedly delaying this fully vetted and final voluntary organic standard, and now proposing to withdraw it. We will see the department in court and are confident that we will prevail on this important issue for the organic sector.”