Posts Tagged ‘NOP’
Descriptions of Roger Blobaum’s Organic and Related Papers on this Website and at the Wisconsin Historical Society
Roger Blobaum is presently in the process of transferring his life long collection of organic movement and related documents to the Wisconsin Historical Society for a national organic archival collection. A portion of the collection is available on this website. It is estimated that the Wisconsin Historical Society will have Roger’s papers archived and available…
Read MorePresentation on Global Accreditation of Certifiers, Collaboration with Government Authorities and National Accreditors, and Other Organic Trade Harmonizing Activities of the International Organic Accreditation Service | 2008
By Blobaum, International Organic Accreditation Service, 2008 Website: www.ioas.org Email: [email protected] The IOAS and its services The International Organic Accreditation Service (IOAS), a nonprofit sector-specific international body established by IFOAM 10 years ago, works worldwide providing a broad range of servio relating to conformity assessment in organic agriculture.
Read MoreGuest Commentary published in the “OFARM Quarterly” – Organic Farmers and Consumers Face New Challenge: Stopping Government Backsliding on Organic Integrity 2006
Organic Farmers and Consumers Face New Challenge: Stopping Government Backsliding on Organic Integrity This guest commentary was published in the November 2006 issue of OFARM Quarterly. By Roger Blobaum Developments unfolding in the organic industry are raising serious new concerns about how fast the organic sector can be expanded and mainstreamed without weakening standards, undermining…
Read MorePresentation on Organic Integrity Workshop at the MOSES Organic Farming Conference 2006
Organic Integrity Workshop, Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference, LaCrosse, Wisconsin, February 25, 2006 I want to talk about the most important thing consumers buying organic food have wanted to be sure about, and that organic farmers who produce that food have wanted to be sure to provide, and that is organic integrity. It means organic…
Read MorePresentation at the OFARM Annual Meeting – Political Action Needed to Turn Back Threats to Organic Integrity 2004
Presented at the OFARM Annual Meeting in La Crosse, WI February 25, 2004, By Roger Blobaum I want to talk with you today about recent political developments that are undermining organic integrity and the support of consumers and environmentalists and that may be putting your markets and incomes at risk. My comments will focus on…
Read MorePresentation at the Upper Midwest Organic Conference 1998
Roger Blobaum, Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference, Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, February 20, 1998 When Faye Jones asked me last November to pick a title for my talk here, I had just completed a year as coordinator of a new initiative called the Soul of Agriculture Project. And I had just spent several weeks putting together a…
Read MoreTestimony to the US Senate Agriculture Committee on the Organic Rule 1997
My name is Roger Blobaum and most of my work on organic food and farming has been as a consultant to public interest organizations and institutions. This process has dragged on a long time. In 1990 the Senate Agriculture Committee was presented with petitions containing 136,000 names of people asking for national organic standards. Most…
Read MorePublic Input to the National Organic Standards Board 1993
Statement by Roger Blobaum, Public Input Session, National Organic Standards Board, Kutztown, Pennsylvania May 16, 1993 Mr. Chairman and members of the board, my name is Roger Blobaum and I have a small consulting firm that provides professional services to organic and sustainable agriculture organizations. I have been involved in the development of organic agriculture…
Read MorePresentation at the Upper Midwest Organic Conference – Organic Farmers and the Feds: Can This Relationship Be Saved? 1993
Roger Blobaum, Upper Midwest Organic Conference, Sparta, Wisconsin, March 6, 1993 The title I have selected for this talk, “Organic Farmers and the Feds: Can This Relationship Be Saved?”, describes in many ways the difficult political situation we face with organic agriculture today. Getting the feds and organic farmers together in 1990 wasn’t easy. It…
Read MoreOriginal OFAC Grant 1992
Organic Farmers Associations Council c/o Janus Farms Institute Rt. 3, Box 494, Silver City, NC 27344Contact Person: Kate Havel Phone: 919-742-4672 Project Director: John Matthews: 501-446-2171 Amount Requested: $7,565 March 15, 1992 Summary The Organic Farmers Associations Council (OFAC) is a national non-profit organization made up of state and regional grower and certification organizations. Although…
Read MoreOriginal Invitation to join the Organic Farmer’s Association Council 1990
INSIDE ORGANIC: Putting Organic Integrity First at the NOP: Is This New USDA Commitment for Real? (Nov/Dec 09)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Nov/Dec 2009 Is it possible organic integrity could become Priority Number One at the U.S. Department of Agriculture after all these years of inattentive oversight, lack of political support, lax and uneven enforcement, stingy appropriations, and poor management?
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: USDA’s Surprising Decision to Order a Rigorous Outside Audit of Its Organic Accreditation Program Is a Huge Step Forward (Sept/Oct 09)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · January, 2007 After seven long years of stonewalling to block independent review and oversight of its troubled organic program, it looks like the U.S. Department of Agriculture may have its hands full in the coming year with not one, but two, organic program audits.
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: New Census of Agriculture Numbers Support the Claim Organic Is One of Agriculture’s Fastest Growing Sectors (March/April 09)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · March/April, 2009 The 2007 Census of Agriculture, the first to include detailed national information on both the number and size of farms under organic management and the number in transition to organic, provides new evidence organic agriculture is holding its own as one of American agriculture’s fastest growing…
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: Organic Farming Memo to New Obama Administration: An Organic Program Upgrade Is Badly Needed at USDA (Jan/Feb 09)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Jan/Feb 2009 When President-Elect Barak Obama takes office in January, he becomes the fourth president challenged to fully implement the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act and to develop and support a National Organic Program that supports organic farmers, meets consumer expectations, and guarantees organic integrity. He succeeds three…
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: National Organic Program Is Undermining Materials Review Authority Granted to the NOSB to Help Define Organic and Guarantee Its Integrity (Sept/Oct 08)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Sept/Oct 2008 The authority Congress gave the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to help define organic and guarantee organic integrity is being seriously eroded by National Organic Program (NOP) actions involving approval of materials for the National List of substances allowed in organic production. Worse yet the NOSB,…
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: Farm Bill Includes Significant Gains for Organic Farming But Falls Far Short of Achieving an Organic ‘Fair Share’ (July/Aug 08)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · July/Aug 2008 The five-year farm bill that survived a relentless attack on farm subsidy payments and a Presidential veto before becoming law includes important organic farming advances and improvements and higher funding levels for organic programs. Overall, however, the $307 billion initiative does not go nearly far enough…
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: Controversial Congressional “Oink Oink” Funding Process Is Potential Source of More Organic Program Support (May/June 08)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · May/June 2008 After doing well in a long campaign to increase support for organic agriculture in the farm bill, organic advocates are looking ahead to USDA implementation of programs with newly mandated funding and the annual push to convince lawmakers who appropriate money annually to do more to…
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: The NOSB Completes Fifteen Often Bumpy Years Dealing with USDA Facilitating Public Participation and Protecting Organic Integrity (Nov/Dec 07)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Nov/Dec 2007 The National Organic Standards Board, the one-of-a-kind official body that recently completed 15 sometimes bumpy years advising and assisting the U.S. Department of Agriculture in implementing the Organic Foods Production Act, (OFPA) deserves the kind of report card most students dream about. The organic community, like…
Read MoreINSIDE ORGANIC: Surprise NOP Auditor Visits to Organic Farms and Processors in China is Overdue Response to Concerns About Integrity of Organic Food Imports (Sept 07)
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Sept 2007 Widely publicized reports of Chinese lapses in guaranteeing the safety of its food exports, including press reports raising questions about the integrity of its organic food exports, suggest an urgent need to increase government and industry oversight that will guarantee organic integrity and reassure consumers. The…
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