People in the News -- OTA Annual Leadership Awards Thomas Harding, Jr., President - Lehigh Valley Organic Growers, wins “2015: Growing the Organic Industry Award” at OTA Annual Leadership Dinner, NPEE 2015 By Alesia Bock, AgriSystems International I was so very thrilled to be in attendance as my mentor, Thomas Harding, Jr., won this year’s [...]
January 26, 2016 Organic Trade Pacts Boost US Organic Exports An Organic Trade Association (OTA) report published last year finds an almost 60% upswing in US organic exports to Canada, the European Union and major Asian trade partners as a result of international trade pacts. U.S. organic exporters have greatly benefited from international accords that [...]
January 20, 2016 GMO LABELING UPDATE Guest Blog By Steven Hoffman In further attempts to derail Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in January hosted a series of secret closed-door meetings with representatives from industrial agriculture and biotech, along with pro-GMO labeling advocates, to try to resolve GMO labeling in advance of [...]
Before the Sunset: Spring NOSB Meeting Covers New Ground; Nearly 200 Materials Up for 2017 Sunset Review By Alesia Bock, AgriSystems International The Spring 2015 National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting welcomed several new board members, received a large amount of public comment, voted on material petitions and 2016 Sunset review, and renewed a call [...]
Growing demand for organics, combined with near-total reliance by US farmers on GMO corn and soybeans, is driving a huge increase in US imports of organic and non-GMO corn from such far-flung countries as Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands - the top three exporters of organic corn to the US in 2014, respectively, says the [...]
Guest Blog By Steven Hoffman USDA To Launch Non-GMO Certification and Labeling Program: “USDA Process Verified” New “pay-to-play” program calls for companies to pay USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service to certify accuracy of non-GMO claims and allow “USDA Process Verified” to be added to a product’s non-GMO label claims. Washington, DC (May 18, 2015) - Rather [...]
Guest Blog By Steven Hoffman From Pepsi to Panera, more than a dozen major food brands and restaurant chains have announced in the past year that they are getting rid of controversial additives, artificial colorings and ingredients, antibiotics, and GMOs, or adding organic products to their mix. Boulder, CO (May 18, 2015) – Talk about [...]
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The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) held its public meeting April 29 – 2, 2014, in San Antonio, TX, to discuss a number of action items related to the Organic industry. This year, the spring meeting included many agenda items held over from the fall meeting, which was cancelled due to the partial government shutdown [...]
The organic products industry grew to be a $35-billion business in 2013, reported the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in May 2014. The reported 11.5% increase from 2012 is the fastest growth rate in the last five years. The OTA expects this growth will continue over the next two years. “Consumers are making the correlation between [...]
