202-234-4433 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. Page 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT of AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE NATIONAL ORGANIC
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Page 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM + + + + + PUBLIC LISTENING SESSION: USDA ACTIVITIES & PRIORITIES RELATED TO ORGANIC AGRICULTURE & MARKETS + + + + + TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2011 + + + + + The session convened in the Jefferson Auditorium at the USDA South Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC, at 8:30 a.m., Mark Lipson, Moderator, presiding. USDA STAFF: MARK LIPSON, Organic & Sustainable Agriculture Policy Advisor EDWARD AVALOS JILL AUBURN REBECCA BLUE CATHY GREENE SHANNON HAMM SHARON HESTVIK SHARI KOSCO MILES MCEVOY MARY PEET MARK ROSE DAVID SHIPMAN MATT SMITH STEVEN SMITH KELLY STRZELECKI CAREN WILCOX CATHERINE WOTEKI Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 2 ATTENDEES: GEORGE BASS, The Country Hen LAURA BATCHA, Organic Trade Association CARMELA BECK, Driscoll's TONY BEDARD, Frontier Natural Products Cooperative and OTA Board Member SARAH BIRD, Annie's Inc. and OTA Board Member KARINE BOUIS-TOWE MARK BUSCHING, Crowell & Moring, LLP CHRISTINE BUSHWAY, Organic Trade Association STEVE ETKA, National Organic Coalition LESLIE GOLDMAN, Beet Keepers, Return! KATY GREEN, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association JAYDEE HANSON, Center for Food Safety KRISTINA HUBBARD, Organic Seed Alliance MARK KASTEL, The Cornucopia Institute BETH LARABEE, Iowa Organic Association ARIANE LOTTI, Organic Farming Research Foundation PATTY LOVERA, Food & Water Watch EDWARD MALTBY, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance CHUCK MARCY, Marcy and Partners and OTA Board Member JOHN MESKO, Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota MELODY MEYER, UNFI and Organic Trade Association COLIN O'NEIL, Center for Food Safety SHEPHERD OGDEN, Jefferson County, West Virginia Agricultural Development Office SUSAN PAVLIN, Slow Food Atlanta/GA Organics JIM PIERCE, Oregon Tilth JULIA SABIN, Smucker Natural Foods, Inc. and OTA Board Member LINDSEY LUSHER SHUTE, National Young Farmers Coalition RICHARD SIEGEL, Richard D. Siegel Law Offices MICHAEL SLIGH, RAFI-USA Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 3 ATTENDEES(Cont'd): KARRI STROH, Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society CHARLOTTE VALLAEYS, The Cornucopia Institute CRAIG WEAKLEY, Craig Weakley Consulting and OTA Board Member KAREN WYNNE, Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network LESLIE ZUCK, Pennsylvania Certified Organic and OTA Board Member Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 4 C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S Page Welcome and Introductions 5 Public Comments 23 Comments by USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan 64 Public Comments 70 Additional Introductions 94 Public Comments 101 Comments by Undersecretary Ed Avalos 131 Additional Introductions 135 Public Comments 138 Additional Introductions 231 Public Comments 233 Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 ERRATA For transcript of oral comments, “Public Listening Session: USDA Activities and Priorities Related to Organic Agriculture and Markets; September 20, 2011; Washington, D.C.” Page 25, line 19, “equivalents” should read, “equivalency”; Page 35, line 21, “Velteis” should read, “Velthuis”; Page 35, line 22, “Stacy” should read, “Stacey”; Page 58, line 7, “Velteis” should read, “Velthuis”; Page 64, line 20, “Got” should read, “You’ve got”; Page 178, line 5, “processes” should read, “processors”; Page 223, line 14, “Doug” should read, “Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development, Doug O’Brien”; Page 250, line 13, “depending” should read, “pending”. Page 5 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 8:57 a.m. 3 MR. LIPSON: Good morning, my name 4 is Mark Lipson. I'm the Organic and 5 Sustainable Agriculture Policy Advisor here at 6 USDA, and I'm very, very happy to be opening 7 this listening session for the public to 8 present comments to USDA on the Department's 9 priorities and activities related to organic 10 production and marketing. 11 Today's is basically a day for 12 USDA to listen. We're going to be saying very 13 little compared to how these events have gone 14 in the past. 15 We're really very anxious to hear 16 about the perspectives that the members of the 17 public will bring. We're holding this session 18 now for two basic reasons, and these are the 19 two areas where we have asked the public to 20 direct their comments. 21 First is relative to the National 22 Organic Program, which manages the national Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 6 1 standards and certification and the USDA 2 Organic Seal. 3 For many years now, the National 4 Organic Standards Board, which is the public 5 advisory board charged with certain 6 authorities relative to the National Organic 7 Program has been the main venue for public 8 comment to the program. 9 But because the Board's authority 10 is only limited to certain specific areas, it 11 has received a great deal of comment and spent 12 a great deal of time receiving comments 13 relating to things that are outside of its 14 authorities and boundaries. 15 So one part of this session will 16 be asking for comments on other aspects of the 17 National Organic Program beyond the 18 responsibilities of the National Organic 19 Standards Board. 20 The other aspect of what we're 21 asking the public to comment on today is 22 USDA's priorities and activities for organic Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 7 1 throughout the rest of the Department, beyond 2 the National Organic Program. 3 The regulatory responsibilities of 4 the NOP are just one facet of the Department's 5 focus on organic. 6 My responsibilities as the Policy 7 Advisor include chairing the Organic Working 8 Group, which is the Department-wide 9 information network that cultivates 10 communication and cross-agency coordination 11 within the Department. 12 So the Organic Working Group is 13 hosting this session today in part to receive 14 comments on priorities for all the rest of the 15 Department. What are the most important 16 things that we need to be working on? 17 And we did have the Deputy 18 Secretary, Kathleen Merrigan, scheduled to be 19 here. She's been delayed a little bit. She's 20 got an emergency meeting with the Secretary, 21 so she will be here and we'll get her comments 22 in when she arrives. Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 8 1 In the meantime, I'm going to go 2 ahead and ask the rest of our listening panel 3 to introduce themselves. 4 Throughout the day we will have 5 senior officials and program staff of the 6 Department here to receive the comments that 7 the public will be offering. They'll be able 8 to just ask short, clarifying questions of the 9 presenters. 10 But we do have a very full 11 schedule for the day of public comments, so in 12 order to get everybody in before we need to 13 adjourn at the end of the day we won't have a 14 lot of time for back and forth. 15 Finally, I'll just mention that 16 the other driver for our request for public 17 comments at this time is the inclusion in the 18 USDA's strategic plan of a performance 19 objective, looking for an increase in the 20 number of certified U.S. organic businesses of 21 25 percent from 2009 to 2015. 22 That is in writing since last Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 9 1 summer as a very specific goal of the United 2 States Department of Agriculture, and so 3 therefore we're asking for the public to 4 express their priorities to help us get to 5 that goal. 6 What are the most important things 7 that we can be doing to achieve that goal? 8 What are the most important limiting factors 9 in the environment for organic agriculture? 10 You know, are they production or marketing? 11 What are the most important limiting factors 12 that we at USDA can try and address in order 13 to meet that goal? 14 The Deputy Secretary, I think, 15 will talk a little bit more about that goal 16 when she gets here, but that's a little bit 17 indefinite, unfortunately. But that's just 18 everyday business around here, I'm afraid. 19 So, I'll ask the listening panel 20 that we have to start the session to introduce 21 themselves, make any very brief introductory 22 comments that they also have, and then we'll Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 10 1 get started with the public comments. 2 So Dave, why don't you begin? 3 MR. SHIPMAN: I'm Dave Shipman. 4 I'm the Acting Administrator of the 5 Agricultural Marketing Service. Can you in 6 the back hear me? Okay, thanks. 7 First of all, it's great to have 8 you here and I really appreciate you taking 9 the time to share some of your concerns, 10 interests, what direction we should be headed. 11 But I thought I'd take the 12 opportunity, just take two or three minutes to 13 tell you a little bit about Agricultural 14 Marketing Service. 15 Our mission is to facilitate the 16 marketing of agricultural products. That 17 means whether it's organic or conventional, 18 our mission is to help producers and handlers 19 and the participants in the market, market 20 their products. 21 We've been doing this for close to 22 a hundred years now. We started over 90 years Neal R. Gross & Co., Inc. 202-234-4433 Page 11 1 ago to market news, providing producers in the 2 marketplace the information as to what's the 3 value of their product in the marketplace, 4 what's it selling for? 5 And as the organic market has 6 grown, we've taken on providing more 7 information about organic prices.