Page 55 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Seed Regulation in the US

The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), a stakeholder board comprised

of organic farmers, organic processors, environmentalists, consumers,

an organic retailer, an organic certiication agent, and a scientist with

recognized expertise in organic agriculture, has statutory powers which

provide formal procedures for public notice and comment. It was set up to

ofer recommendations to the NOP to consider regarding interpretation and

implementation of the national standard, yet their recommendations are not

binding. In 2001, the NOSB submitted recommendations (NOSB, 2001) for the

criteria and procedures that might be used for assessing organic seeds and

planting stock. It assigned responsibility for documentation of commercial

availability to certiiers (recorded through organic farm plans, as set out in

CFR Section 205.201(a)(2) and veriied by routine inspection processes). The

determination of commercial availability of organic seed was based on the

appropriate form, quality, and quantity criteria. The NOSB requested that the

Accredited Certiiers Association (ACA), the organization representing organic

certiiers in the US, develop procedures and capacity for their inspection

processes to verify the availability of organic seeds and planting stock. The

recommendations further laid out guidelines for interpretation of the organic

seed rule, of which the clear deinition of equivalency and type was identiied

as important for interpretation of the organic seed regulation:

• Equivalency is deined as a variety exhibiting the same ‘type’ (such as the

butterhead lettuce type) and similar agronomic characteristics such as

insect and disease resistance when compared to the original varietal choice.

• Type is deined by the Federal Seed Act of 1939 (7 U.S.C. 1551.) as either (A)

a group of varieties so nearly similar that the individual varieties cannot be

clearly diferentiated except under special conditions, or (B) when used with

a variety name.

Subsequently, a subcommittee of the NOSB, the Joint Crops and Compliance,

Accreditation, and Certiication Committee (JC & CAC), was formed to further

develop the recommendations. A revised version inclusive of public comment

was submitted to the NOSB in 2005. The reissued recommendations stressed

the need to ensure the consistent application of organic seed requirements

(NOSB, 2005). A number of new requirements shifted more responsibility

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