No More Dust Baths? Rule Shifts Long Practice
Jonathan von Ranson
Editor, NOFA/Mass News
New regulation made in the first few weeks of the National Organic Program (NOP) significantly weakened organic standards, and the news alarmed people in the Massachusetts organic food community standing beneath the giant program.
As this newsletter was going to press, Massachusetts Independent Certification (MIC) had been ordered by the feds to overturn its denial of certification and certify a poultry farm. (MIC used to be the NOFA/Mass Certification Committee. Its inspectors had found that the farmer's operation didn't satisfy the requirement in the National Rule for giving the birds access to out-of-doors and had so notified the farmer).
Stapled to the feds' order was a newly generated set of interpretations of the out-of-door provision of the National Rule. The document appeared to respond to objections MIC had used in its decision not to certify. It almost seemed the NOP was making up the regulations on key aspects of the Rule as it went along. The program has been in effect only since Oct. 21, and this is believed to be the first time federal officials directly and officially countermanded a certifier's decision.
MIC board and certification committee members complained that the matter didn't feel fairly handled. There was a hasty, roughshod quality to the act, which prompted a storm of e-mails and a spate of meetings. "The NOP made an arbitrary interpretation on an important issue," said Don Franczyk, certification coordinator, "without any public comment, and now that interpretation has the force of law. That's not how it is supposed to happen."
The NOFA Interstate Council appropriated $2,000 to fight the NOP decision, and the NOFA/Mass Board put $5,000 into a fund to defend MIC if it refused to certify. (As this issue went to press, MIC was considering its options).
The identity of the poultry operation was not released because of confidentiality protections. But as it now stands, eggs and meat can be sold as organic even if the animals spend their lives essentially indoors. The certifier must accept the farmer's judgment; virtually any documentation will do to support when and how much access is granted.
Objection to the sudden new regulation wasn't unanimous. No less a figure than Bill Duesing, NOFA Interstate Council president, worried that "just being outside" without an unusual amount of space and pasture "wasn't enough." He said the educating necessary to obtain requirements for more freedom and healthier conditions for the fowl during the winter and spring is daunting (he believes the NOP will ultimately require outdoor access during the other seasons). "It seems prudent to certify [this farm]," he said. "It seems at this point doing otherwise would be more harmful to small farmers than helpful to the difficult cause of fighting animal confinement."
One organic inspector was quoted as saying the chickens were better off in many of the larger housed operations (where they have indoor roaming privileges) than in some backyard ones. The quantity issue-the sheer demand for organic eggs-worries other people: there are nowhere near enough small flocks today to supply the demand. It's difficult to control the runoff from ground covered with chicken manure.
The issue has been brewing for a long time. Prices for conventional eggs (influenced by huge operations with caged birds) are notoriously low, so the incentive is strong to label eggs as "organic" in order to get a price premium. Large producers (who have always had the ear of federal agriculture officials) say it costs more to heat spaces accessible to the outdoors, and to feed birds exposed to lower temperatures. They and their scientists say going outdoors onto bare ground exposes the birds to avian influenza, and the eggs to salmonella from rodents. Health reasons are given for debeaking the crowded birds.
"Up until the implementation of the National Rule," Franczyk said, "the NOFA/Mass Certification Program had never certified a debeaked chicken or one that did not have access to the outdoors. The farmer-issued standards mandated that chickens be able to go outside and prohibited debeaking. There seem to be less health issues in birds which have normal access to the outdoors," he said. With their beaks intact, they "can take full advantage of pecking and other natural chicken behaviors."
Franczyk warned that "Small producers with backyard flocks of 10-200 birds--who are not debeaking them and are allowing them access to the outdoors for grazing, pecking, and dust baths--are going to be overwhelmed by a huge volume of 'organic' eggs produced by debeaked chickens in confinement poultry operations."
Basically, long-time organic people are unhappy with the lack of checks and balance in the program. They are calling for peer review of certifiers' decisions and a role for the National Organic Standards Board in regulating the gray areas of the Rule. The NOSB, now strictly advisory, had earlier recommended that producers maximize and encourage birds going outside.
This page was last modified on January 14, 2008 at 12:52:37 PM.