News

USDA criticized for lack of organic livestock rules

A Member of Congress who is also an organic farmer is critical of USDA for not having organic livestock rules in place.

Chellie Pingree of Maine told USDA Undersecretary Greg Ibach Wednesday the rule put forward in 2015 had a lot of support and should have already been finalized. “No, there are not a lot of opinions on either side. This is a real consensus item, and as you’ve heard some of my colleagues talk about, organic dairy farmers are really challenged by not having this rule and by people basically breaking what should be a rule.

Pingree says there’s a difference when raising a calf with non-organic standards and then being allowed to put those calves into an organic dairy herd. “What organic farmers do is they raise them (calves) organically until they’re milking, and they bear those costs so they see that as cheating the dairy system and a real financial advantage to the people who don’t play by what should be the rules.”

Undersecretary Ibach told the subcommittee he expects to have a proposed organic livestock rule by the end of this year, which Pingree says should be a final rule and not just a proposed rule.

Pingree made her comments during the House Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research Subcommittee hearing, where Ibach and Dr. Jennifer Tucker with the National Organic Program responded to the subcommittee’s questions.