The federal government is no longer sitting on the fence when it comes to organic agriculture.
At the behest of the organic community, Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have formed a joint task force to develop a regulation for organics.
For years Ottawa was kept at arms length by an industry not interested in what it saw as government interference.
But faced with the threat of losing the crucial European Union market if it doesn’t adopt a recognized, regulated national standard by December 2005, the industry has turned to Ottawa for help.
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That help arrives on Nov. 22, when a 14-member government task force sinks its teeth into the contentious organic file.
“I can tell you that we are now focusing on this issue,” said Joe Southall, director of commercial affairs with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and head of the Joint Regulatory Task Force on Organic Production. “We want to achieve some consensus and some finalization on this particular file.”
That is welcome news to Paddy Doherty, co-ordinator of the Canadian Organic Initiative, an industry group attempting to establish a new system for organics in Canada. He has spent the last year lobbying for this kind of announcement.
“The (organic) file has actually been cold for eight months or so. There has been nothing going on ever since (the Liberals) called the election. Finally there is something going on now,” he said.
Southall said the committee plans to examine potential regulatory schemes for governing the sale of Canadian organic food at home and abroad. The new rules will function in conjunction with the existing certification system.
“We’re not interested in putting anybody out of business. We’re interested in working with them to create this regulatory structure.”
Any new regulation system must be paid for by farmer who will likely fund it through higher certification fees, said Doherty.
“We’re not going to get the same deal they got in the United States. It’s going to cost us.”
That’s why the industry doesn’t want more regulation than is necessary.
Southall said the task force will strive to create a system that is affordable.
He hopes to have a package of regulatory options ready for industry comment by spring of 2005 in an effort to get a Canadian regulation in place in time to meet the EU’s Dec. 2005 deadline.
Doherty said progress has also been made on the revision of Canada’s national organic standard.
A committee has responded to all comments provided on Part 1, or the general principals section, of what will be a three-part standard.
Committee members already voted to approve the general principals section of the document but in an attempt to broaden the consensus, the committee has made “substantial but not material” changes to Part 1 of the standard based on suggestions made by those who voted against it.
“There is a challenge now for the working group to convince the Canadian General Standards Board that another vote on Part 1, because of the substantial changes, is not needed,” said Doherty.
