Chip Sundstrom - California Crop Improvement Association

January 2003

The rules of the USDA National Organic Program:
  • The regulation
  • A "process certification" rather than a "product certification"
  • Definitions
I will keep my response as short and succinct as possible and will only highlight the most important aspects of the Rule.
  1. The entire regulation can be downloaded free at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop 
  2. Organic certification is a "process certification" rather than a "product certification." In other words, the production process is certified, the product is not. Organic products don’t have specific quality standards; they simply must be produced in an organic production system.
  3. The Rule is broken down into different subparts.
  4. Subpart A is a list of definitions that should be understood before proceeding.
 

 

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