Sign OFA’s Petition to Tell USDA to Finish a Strong OOL Rule ASAP!
USDA: Secretary Vilsack
Since 2013, the organic community has been working to fix a loophole in the Origin of Livestock standard for organic cow dairies. The USDA National Organic Program’s failure to strengthen the standards for organic livestock has allowed large-scale organic dairies to undermine those organic farms that comply with the intent of the organic label.
In 2015, the NOP published a proposed rule to clarify that, after completion of a one-time transition from a conventional dairy farm, all new dairy animals milked on an organic dairy farm would need to be managed organically from the last third of gestation. The 2015 proposed rule garnered strong public support from the entire organic community but has never been finalized. Now, after years of advocacy by the organic community, the NOP has released a revised proposed rule for public comment.
We are continuing to collect signatures. If you are an organic dairy farmer and would like to also submit more specific individual comments, please see our talking points and instructions HERE.
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To:
USDA: Secretary Vilsack
From:
[Your Name]
Docket: AMS-NOP-11-0009
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
Organic farmers and organic consumers expect the USDA to guarantee that all organic dairy farms are following the same rules. But years of delay in closing loopholes in the rules for how animals are transitioned into organic have caused ongoing economic harm to organic dairy farms across the country.
We urge you to work as quickly as possible to finalize the proposed rule on Origin of Livestock with a final rule that can be consistently enforced. The final rule must:
- Prohibit the cycling dairy animals in and out of organic production.
- Prohibit the sale or transfer of transitioned animals as organic. A transitioned animal should only be considered organic on the farm it was transitioned on.
- Require oversight by certifiers to make sure that transitioned animals are not transferred or sold to other operations.
- Go into effect immediately. If some operations are in the process of completing organic certification at the time the rule goes into effect, they can transition animals to organic using the allowable one-time transition.