National Organic Program

And so my great uncle Homer partnered with about 50 other local farmers to help create California Certified Organic Farmers, which was one of the first certifying bodies of its kind decades before COVID.

the National Organic Program.

But they knew that certification could serve as sort of a proxy for trust, that if you weren't able to know your farmer, you could see that seal and know that it meant that your food was grown organically, that is to say, using natural systems without the use of persistent toxic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

More than that, that it was grown in a way that supports soil health and biodiversity.

Seriously.

The National Organic Program is part of the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.

It's not actually any sort of indication of the food's safety or nutritional value.

So what does it mean to have and use the USDA seal? It means the product follows strict production, handling, and labeling standards and goes through a certification process.

And then we would go to retailers and we'd go, "This is not organic." They said, "Well, it's not our job.

You know, that's the NOP's job." So we would talk to OTA, and then they wouldn't do anything.

Since then, they know they're... they're working on it.

I was actually just talking to co-CEOs of O- Organic Trade Association and, you know, we battled it out on LinkedIn some, and he's kind of upset at me sometimes the way I say it.

And also for some quick context and update to today's interview, California Bills AB 1812 and SB 1031, which Rhodes and I discuss during our conversation, were actually stopped at the Appropriations Committee in mid-August, and are no longer considered viable bills.

Now, with those bills off the table, BPI's attention now shifts back to AB 1201, the existing California law that ties compostability to USDA National Organic Program standards.

Now, larger questions around the future of recyclable and compostable packaging policy and regulation remain, and will continue to affect packaged food producers as they navigate the crossover of food safety and sustainability.

Okay, so with that said, after a quick break, we'll hear that discussion.

Uh, then there is SB 1031, um, which is coming out of the Senate side, and that bill is looking to address a few things around compostable packa- packaging.

Uh, it's looking to, uh, improve labeling and identification of compostable products, uh, which we know is a, you know, i- issue for making sure that people know, uh, what an item is and where, which bin it goes in, as well as for composters to identify.

It also starts to nip around the edges of, um, topics related to compost quality and the things that you've talked about before with my colleague, uh, colleague Alex, um, related to, you know, National Organic Program compost.

Um, that bill is still moving through.