The floundering Canadian organic standard has taken another backward step.
Last August, a 41-member committee approved the first part of the three-part standard by a slim 61 percent majority.
That was not considered a strong enough endorsement so a working group revamped the document, responding to a litany of criticisms in an effort to seek a broader consensus.
After an extensive six-month refining process Part 1 went back for another vote, which garnered even less support for the organic principles document.
Twenty-four of 40 committee members returned an affirmative ballot for a 60 percent approval rating. There were nine negative ballots, one abstention and six that were not returned to the Canadian General Standards Board.
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“What the CGSB has told us is there is too many negative votes and that the Standards Council of Canada will not accept this standard as it sits with that many negative votes,” said Paddy Doherty, chair of the committee’s editorial working group.
Votes on the second and third parts of the standard went slightly better with the guidance document receiving a 63 percent nod of approval and the permitted substance list garnering a 73 percent affirmation rate. Part 2 will also require some further fine-tuning.
The upshot is that after three years of trying to revise an outdated national standard, Canada is still without a document it can use to negotiate continued access to the European Union.
Countries that do not appear on the EU’s list of approved exporting nations by Dec. 31, 2005, will be shut out of that critically important organic market.
Canadian negotiators have warned it will take a minimum of two years to reach a deal with the EU once an application is filed.
However, EU officials have indicated talks could be fast-tracked in an attempt to avoid trade disruption between the two regions.
With the deadline only nine months away, the organic standards committee has to figure out a way to break the deadlock, convince the Canadian General Standards Board it has resolved most of the outstanding objections and seek final approval from the Standards Council of Canada.
“There has to be an attempt to resolve the conflict and ask people to change their vote. But I don’t know how we’re going to do that,” said Doherty.
Wally Hamm, director of OCPP/Pro-Cert Canada, a large organic certification agency, was one of the nine committee members who voted against Part 1 of the standard.
He said there were “11th hour changes” to the document he couldn’t abide, such as the addition of a clause that allowed for the use of antibiotics in dairy cattle subject to a withdrawal period.
“There were some changes that were not acceptable,” said Hamm.
“I’m not going to put my name on a document that says ‘you can use antibiotics in dairy.’ That’s not what the consumer wants.”
Despite the slightly lower approval rating on Part 1 of the standard, Hamm thinks the committee is making progress. This time around there is a centimetre-high stack of comments to address as opposed to seven cm six months ago.
But there is a complicating factor.
“I don’t think there is time for another vote,” he said.
It is entirely possible the committee won’t be able to achieve the type of consensus the Standards Council of Canada is looking for, which Hamm believes is a 67 percent yes vote.
But he isn’t concerned about EU access because there are encouraging developments on a simultaneous process that could salvage negotiations.
The federal government is developing a regulation for organics, which Hamm believes is what the European are really looking for.
“That’s moving ahead really well,” he said.
Hamm is convinced that if a workable standard cannot be achieved through the CGSB process, the federal government will step in and take over the document, somehow incorporating it into the new regulation.
Doherty said the regulatory task force is expected to ask the federal agriculture minister in April to formally endorse the idea of creating a regulation for organic agriculture.
The group hopes to devise a draft regulation over the summer months and seek industry consensus on the rules this fall, with the hope of getting it approved before the EU’s Dec. 31 deadline.
“We’re optimistic the door is not going to slam shut,” said Doherty.
