Organic regulations – Sowing the seeds of sustainability

2009-10-01

Media hypes it. Manufacturers push it. Labels scream it. Shoppers can’t push their carts or tote a basket to any aisle of their local grocery store without facing a ubiquitous choice: regular – or organic?

What once was just a fashionable option is now a real decision. Whether it is fresh beans or boxed noodles, more consumers are digging into the meaning of organic farming and its implications for our changing environment.

Organic farming has many benefits for Canada and Canadians. In addition to reducing the number of potentially harmful chemicals in the soil, water and air, it can help maintain soil quality and help crops withstand drought, disease and pests. Scientists have also pointed towards organic farming practices as a means of slowing and coping with climate change.

Laura Telford of the Canadian Organic Growers explains that organic farming is a third more energy-efficient than conventional chemical-based farming, which uses energy to produce and transport chemical-based fertilizers. Also, she points out soil that is farmed organically is capable of keeping more carbon in the soil – thus releasing fewer greenhouse gas emissions – than is the case with conventional farming practices.

On June 30, 2009, the Organic Products Regulations (OPR) came into effect in Canada, harmonizing Canada’s organic food standards with international standards and making the adherence to Canadian organic standards mandatory for farmers selling products labelled as organic across provincial or international borders, or using the Canada Organic Logo on their products. Federally regulated standards and regulations will now play a real role in the future development of organic farming in Canada, as well as in communicating its benefits to the purchasing public.

The regulations are an annex to the Canada Agricultural Products Act. After three years of consultative talks led by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the regulations require that organic producers adhere to criteria specified in the Canadian General Standards Board’s (CGSB) national standards for organic products: Organic Production Systems, General Principles and Management Standards (CAN/CGSB-32.310-2006 Amended 1-Oct-2008); and with it the Organic Production Systems Permitted Substances Lists (CAN/CGSB-32.311-2006). Both have been approved by SCC as national standards of Canada.

Telford says Canadians will have to wait and see what kinds of impacts these regulations will have, but the industry is already optimistic. Having national regulations in place could spur more farmers to enter organic production and, consequently, more acreage may come under organic management. Telford says that’s what happened in the U.S. when their organic regulations came into force in 2002.

Although Canada introduced its organics regulations to satisfy consumer labelling concerns and international trade issues, they may also help Canada fight climate change. Canada is already seeing progress in the way farmers, processors and consumers approach all things organic: Telford says she’s observing increased activity at the level of certification bodies, and Canadian Organic Growers is fielding more farmers’ questions than usual. She says in three years (the transition period for the regulations), that activity will translate into more organic farmers.

“Standards and third-party verification of standards are needed to provide consumers with the guarantee that they need to support organic,” Telford says. “One of the strategies that Canadian Organic Growers is just starting to do some work on is to convince the climate (change) exchanges that organic agriculture merits carbon credits.”

She says there are agricultural practices that are eligible for carbon credits, but so far organic agriculture is not one of them.

“Once we are successful in convincing these organizations that there is enough science to indicate that organic agriculture is more energy efficient and can sequester more carbon in the soil, that’s when standards come in. By having standards, we can determine which farmers are truly organic and tie any carbon trading schemes to organic certification,” Telford explains.

She adds that standards referenced in regulations create a level playing field for all farmers who make an organic claim. Now disputes can be settled with official complaints.

Regulated standards also generate consumer confidence: if a product carries a recognizable federal logo backed by government oversight and sanctions, consumers have much more faith that the product is what it says it is. Also, the regulations will put Canada in line with its trading partners who have developed similar standards, Telford notes, and this helps guarantee access to international markets.
Brenda Frick, Organic Research and Extension Coordinator with the University of Saskatchewan, says standards may have the biggest impact in helping to increase acceptance of organic methods, and that comes back to the consumer.

Although Frick says standards can play a real role in addressing climate change, simply by moving the industry forward, standards can also change people’s perceptions of farming and help evolve people’s relationships with the land.

“I think standards have an important educational role,” Frick says. “The 2006 (Statistics Canada) survey showed a large number of farmers that identified themselves as organic but were not certified. I think more are claiming the word because they think it means natural, or without pesticides. Organic is far more than that.”

“I think people would like to see themselves as having a positive environmental impact. Standards help identify some of the ways of doing that,” Frick says.  

-30-

This article first appeared in Volume 36 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 2009.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

Back