Page 87 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Seed Regulation in the US, EU and Mexico

regulation enforcement, other. (2) What do you(r) organization perceive needs to

be done to close the loop in organic seed usage in an organic agriculture system?

Ranking options here were: clear regulatory enforcement, national organic

variety trial program, crop group quota targets on organic seed use, sanctioned

database, training in organic seed production, deinition of equivalency, other,

and (speciically for Mexico) allowance of untreated organic seed importation.

Relevant grey literature, expert reports and policy documents were reviewed

for all three jurisdictions as no peer reviewed literature on organic seed

regulation in the case study countries has been published. The irst two authors

participated, in varying roles as researchers and stakeholders, in key organic seed

meetings held in the US, the EU and Mexico throughout the study period. The

methodology emphasises the importance of within-case analysis and detailed

process tracing. Finally, the case material from each jurisdiction is compared

(George and Bennett, 2005).

3.3 Developments in organic seed regulation

3.3.1 The US case

In 2002 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed a

domestic organic regulatory standard to govern the US organic sector, the

National Organic Program (NOP). The standard includes a clause governing

organic seed usage in certiied organic farming systems (Section 205.204(a))

that prescribes the use of organic seed in organic production systems whenever

such seed is commercially available (USDA AMS, 2002). Interpretations of the

seed clause, and the development of monitoring tools for compliance, have

evolved through successive guidance documents issued by a statutory authority

charged with oversight of implementation, the National Organic Standards

Board (NOSB), to the NOP. However, because after twenty years’ of consultation

and re-drafting of recommendations, no oicial endorsement by the NOP of the

NOSB’s recommendations has emerged, and because the framing legislation

provides neither deadlines nor penalties for non-compliance, divergent

interpretive practices have emerged. The main indings and analysis of these

developments are discussed in detail in Renaud et al. (2014), and summarized

briely below. A chronology of the main events is outlined in Table 3.1.

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