Organic Farming Faces Government Rules Whose Intention Is To Run Them Out Of Business

Survival Joe | Food • Gardening • Government Overreach

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FDA’s New Regulations Threaten Organic Farming

In response to the major backlash against biotech firms, organic farming has surged in recent years.

“[Organic farming] has seen a 245 percent increase since 2002 and a 4.2 percent increase from 2012. Retail sales were valued at $35 billion.”

The huge growth in organic farming has likely threatened larger firms like Monsanto and DOW which is why the bio-tech friendly FDA is coming out with new, tighter restrictions that could in essence create a de-facto ban on organic farming.

According to Judith McGeary, who serves as the executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, the new FDA guidelines on both manure cycling as well as multipurpose use of farmland for both grazing and plant harvesting could produce a significant strain on the burgeoning organic farm movement.

As she relayed to Off The Grid News:

The single biggest issue is the mandatory waiting period in between application and harvesting the crops. For “untreated” amendments – which include not only manure, but also worm compost, compost teas with any additives, and any compost that doesn’t meet FDA’s specific standards – there is a 9-month waiting period. This makes these valuable soil amendments essentially unusable. Even fully treated compost would require a 45-day waiting period, limiting its usefulness.

These waiting periods are simply not needed. Organic farmers have been using both manure and compost for centuries, with excellent results. The certified organic standards have no waiting period on the use of compost, and only a 90-day to 120-day waiting period on the use of raw manure; and there have been no reported outbreaks from these practices. The FDA’s proposal would destroy one of the core tools for sustainable food production, for no good reason.”

McGeary’s concern is that the new stringent regulation on the use of compost will limit how quickly farmers will be able to turn old manure or old plant refuse into a usable end product.

If the restrictions are too stringent, it could cause huge gaps in the ability for farmers to harvest in regular cycles, essentially putting them out of business.

In addition to the draconian enforcements on manure are new guidelines regulating domestic livestock.

Organic farmers are concerned FDA inspectors might rule that if there’s a “reasonable probability” livestock might possibly contaminate produce that is being grown at the same time, a mandatory waiting period would be initiated to prevent cross contamination.

However, the “mandatory waiting period” is entirely up to an individual FDA inspector’s discretion, and some fear that it might be as long as 9 months…thereby making it impossible for a farmer to use sections of land for growing produce any longer.

Even more ambiguous are the requirements that if the risk of cross contamination are present the farmer must take certain precautionary measures to prevent the contamination.

Though the FDA will require farmers to take preventive measures to reduce cross contamination, it never specifies what those measures are.

And the FDA’s regulations don’t end there.

They’ve gone so far as to make tough new provisions on how farmers can use water, how they set up their buildings, what equipment they use, personnel training for workers, along with arbitrary record-keeping protocol that could create a top heavy financial burden that puts organic farmers out of business.