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| Winter 1995] |
ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION ACT
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329 |
B. The Legislative History of the OFPA
Clearly, the OFPA, though precise and well-crafted,
suffers from egregious debilitating exceptions.28 The
exceptions were ill-advisedly added through lobbying by vested interests such as chemical
input vendors, federal fund recipients (through LISA, SARE, etc.) and the "organic
industry," a coalition of distributors and processors that sees "organic"
as its playing field, to the exclusion of growers.
The bill was worded primarily by the staff of Vermont Senator Patrick
Leahy, particularly Kathleen Merrigan,29 who, despite no
experience in organic farming, produced an outstanding and novel piece of legislation.
The great novelty of the statute is its heavy dependence on an
advisory board, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB or "the board), to
promulgate regulations under the act.30 However, this
dependence also represents the statute’s greatest weakness
28.
See, e.g.., 7 U.S.C. § 6505(d) (Supp. 1991) (small-farmer exception from
certification); 7 U.S.C. § 6505(c) (exemptions for processed food); 7 U.S.C. §
6506(b)(2) (exemption for federal or state emergency spray programs).
See generally Terence J. Centner, The United States Organic
Foods Production Act: Does the Smallfarmer Exception Breach the United States’s
Obligations Under GATT?, 28 TLSA L.J. 715 (1993) (discussing the small-farmer
exception to the OFPA and whether it violates GATT).
29. Kathleen Merrigan was the original, primary
author of the revision of Senate Bill 2108, which became the OFPA (statutorily composed by
attorney Bill Gillon of the Senate Agriculture Committee staff).
30. See 7 U.S.C. § 6503(c) (Supp. V 1993).
Subsection 6503(c) provides: "In developing the program under subsection (a) of this
section, and the National List under section 6517 of this title, the Secretary shall
consult with the National Organic Standards Board established under section 6518 of this
title." Id. Section6518 defines the objective of the National Standards Board:
"The Secretary shall establish a National Organic Standards Board . . . to assist in
the development of standards for substances to be used in organic production and to advise
the Secretary on any otheraspects of the implementation of this chapter." 7 U.S.C. §
6518(a) (Supp. V 1993). The NOSB’s responsibilities are:
[to] provide recommendations to the Secretary regarding the
implementation of this chapter[,] . . . to develop the proposed National List or proposed
amendments to the National List for Submission to the Secretary in accordance with section
6517 of this title[,] . . . [to] convene technical advisory panels to provide scientific
evaluation of the materials considered for inclusion in the National List[,] . . . [to]
review all botanical pesticides used in agricultural production and consider whether any
such botanical pesticide should be included in the list of prohibited natural
substances[,] . . . [to[ advise the Secretary concerning the testing of organically
produced agricultural products for residues caused by unavoidable residual environmental
contamination [and] . . . [to] advise the Secretary concerning rules for exemptions from
specific requirements of this chapter (except the provision 6511 of this title) with
respect to agricultural products produced on certified organic farms if such farms are
subject to a Federal or State emergency peat or disease treatment program.
7 U.S.C. §6518(k)(1)-(6) (Supp. V 1993).
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