A new national organic regulation will put the squeeze on small producers, says a former Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspector.
The Canadian government is committed to implementing a new regulation before the end of the year to meet the import requirements of the European Union.
When that new regime takes effect, organic farmers should brace themselves for additional costs that will erode price premiums and force some producers out of business, said Wayne Sabine, who was an inspector and auditor for the CFIA and its predecessor for 27 years.
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“They don’t care about the little guy. That’s not in their radar at all,” he said.
The retired government worker who runs a modest mixed organic farm near Perth-Andover, N.B., said the federal agency operates on a cost recovery basis.
The CFIA will be charging fees to cover the costs of setting up an organic office, conducting organic inspections and monitoring imports, costs that will eventually trickle down to producers through their certification bodies.
“I don’t see that there is anything good coming out of this the way it is playing out,” said Sabine.
He contends large operators will be able to absorb the extra costs but some of the true organic pioneers who sell their products at farmers’ markets across the country will be forced out of business.
“The little guy is going to get the shaft as usual,” he said.
But an official with the CFIA insisted the agency is sensitive to the concerns of Sabine and other small organic producers.
“We’ve been working very hard to develop a system that’s affordable to farmers,” said Gary Briggs, costing specialist with the agency’s Organic Task Force.
Several schemes have been bandied about at the CFIA but no option has been selected because the structure of the regulation has yet to be finalized. However, Briggs said the farmer will not necessarily be footing the bill.
“I can tell you that we’re sensitive to their concerns. We’re certainly not trying to put anybody out of business.”
Paddy Doherty, chair of the industry’s Organic Regulatory Committee, said Sabine raises a legitimate grievance, one that has been voiced numerous times by people in the organic community.
“Once you create bureaucracy they can run amok and they can make things difficult for people, especially for small people. It’s true,” he said.
But he has a sense that the people running the CFIA’s newly created National Organic Office are supportive of small growers and are painfully aware of the industry’s cost concerns.
Doherty is confident the CFIA is attempting to create an affordable regulation, considering organic producers already pay an average of $700 per year for certification.
“I don’t think we can bear a whole lot more. If we can somehow get a law in place that prevents fraud but doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, that’s our intent.”
His gut feeling is that the federal government will pick up the entire tab for the program, since it acknowledged that the regulation serves the greater public interest.
Doherty better take some antacids because that is not going to happen.
Briggs said there will be fees, although he pointed out that none of the 1,650 fees currently collected by the CFIA are on a full cost recovery basis. They range from a low of 10 percent to a high of around 30 percent of the actual expenditures.
He said producers need to realize the organic industry asked for this regulation; it is not being imposed on them by the CFIA.
“We’re here to try and serve the whole organic industry, not just the big guys or the little guys,” he said.
