USDA Calls for Audit of National Organic Program
What a bad year for food screw ups. There’s been a bunch of meat recalls, peanut butter laced with salmonella and even cookie dough went bad!
So it shouldn’t be a surprise the U.S. government is hell-bent on reforming food safety—organic food too.
The audit will investigate whether the National Organic Program—a branch of the U.S. Agriculture Department—is adhering to the rules for accrediting and overseeing federal organic standards.
There are almost 100 private certifiers who can grant “organic” status. So the audit will look into their activities. The review will begin in October and will be conducted by a division of the Commerce Department. It should take several months to complete.
Organic farmers, certifiers and other groups petitioned President Obama and requested for the audit. A spokesperson for the petitioners said, “Our hope is this will bring about consistency in the standards and with the way they deal with certifiers.”
Results will be released to the public. Now, I’m not a historian, but I can’t remember any non-organic, mass food producer actually asking for an audit, can you?
Via The Washington Post.
