Prefer your Santa Maria-style barbecue with certified organic beef? Well, new rules from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) might make that a little more difficult.
The USDA announced on April 7 that it is proposing additional rules to its organic livestock and poultry requirements in an attempt to improve consistency among growers who boast the organic seal.
According to USDA Public Affairs Specialist Sam Jones-Ellard, major provisions from the USDA’s proposed amendments include:
• Clarifying how producers and handlers must treat livestock and poultry to ensure their health and well-being through life, including transport and slaughter. (For example, animals in transport for more than 12 hours must be given organic feed and fresh water at the 12-hour mark.)
• Specifying which physical alterations are allowed and which are prohibited in organic livestock and poultry production. (This includes more specific regulations on euthanasia and the prohibition of debeaking.)
• Establishing minimum indoor and outdoor space requirements for poultry. (Indoor stocking for laying hens would have a maximum of 3 to 4.5 pounds of hen per square foot, and outdoor stocking would have a maximum of 2.25 pounds of laying hen per square foot or 5 pounds of broilers per square foot.)
Jones-Ellard said the poultry space requirements are of the most interest to organic farmers.
“That’s one area where the original regulations didn’t get into the specifics of what the minimum requirements for poultry space are,” he said. “Because of that, organic operations might have been interpreting current regulations differently from each other.”
The new regulations aim to create a level playing field for all certified organic farmers and ensured quality for organic consumers, according to USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Administrator Elanor Starmer.
“By strengthening standards for organic livestock and poultry, we are ensuring that we meet consumer expectations and maintain the integrity of the organic seal to support the sector’s continued growth,” Starmer said in a news release.
The USDA reported a 12 percent growth in organics between 2014 and 2015. According to the agency’s news release, the sector’s recent boom calls for higher standards of operation.
“This proposal sets clear standards for organic animals, providing clarity to organic operations and certifying agents, and establishing a level playing field for all producers,” Starmer said in the release.
As for Santa Barbara County farmers, they won’t feel the new rules’ effects: Only one small poultry producer is currently registered as organic, according to Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Rudy Martel. No livestock producers are.
Still, many local cattlemen raise naturally fed beef without antibiotics or hormones, Martel said. This is because the livestock and poultry operations in Santa Barbara County tend to be small enough to maintain naturally, but too small to justify officially registering organic.
“The cattlemen in this county pride themselves in regards to providing a good product and going through that the natural way,” Martel said. “In regards to the size or the scale of their operations, they aren’t usually large enough to make it financially feasible to go through the whole process of organic registration and to maintain that.”
The USDA’s new rules are open for public comment until June 13, at which point the agency will review the comments received and issue a final rule.
According to Jones-Ellard, organic farmers will have one year from the final rule’s publication to implement all provisions of the USDA’s amendments, with the exception of outdoor poultry access, for which farmers will receive a maximum of five years.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 5, 2016.