 Certified Organic and/or
Exempt Organic by the Rules:
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Quality assurance of safe,
healthy, environmentally friendly food through the
involvement of the USDA, via uniform standards for growing practices, in
addition to values and knowledge of producer.
- Integrity of labeling governed by the National Organic Program (NOP).
The green USDA CERTIFIED ORGANIC
seal indicates the producer's compliance with the toughest organic standards in the world.
- 90 to 120 day waiting period between the application
of raw manures and harvesting required, increasing food safety.
- Farm inspection and oversight performed annually. Grower's comittment
demonstrated by compliance with the National Organic Program.
- Express prohibition of genetically altered seed or plants.
- NOP certification standards require strong emphasis on environmental issues
such as soil tilth, preservation of habitat, buffer zones to
isolate organic crops from conventional, water quality, etc.
- While there is an exemption for small farms ($5000 or less in sales per year),
any grower who labels or represents in any fashion that their product is "organic"
must still legally follow the NOP rules.
- Certification of non-exempt farms is not a choice,
it is the law.
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Non-Organic and/or
Non-Exempt by the Rules
- Compliance with food safety standards is voluntary, not regulated.
- No labeling structure for production methods.
- No required waiting period between application of raw manures and harvesting,
increasing the risk of contamination.
- No farm inspection or oversight performed.
- No restriction on use of GMO seed or plant stock.
- Environmental issues such as soil tilth, environmental preservation of habitat, buffer zones to
isolate organic crops from conventional, etc. strictly at the discretion of grower.
- Growers that misrepresent their products as "organic" when in fact they are not, are subject to
fines and disciplinary action.
- Many small growers are unaware of NOP regulations regarding organic exemption clause, although
violation of NOP regulations may result in fines of up to $10,000 per incident.
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