Growers call for increased production of organic seeds
Sonnabend worked on the team that developed California’s original organic regulations, which inspired some of the national certification standards, she said. Now, organic policy advocates are work- ing to correct seed market deficiencies that may have resulted from exceptions to or- ganic regulations, Sonnabend said. “It is the intent of activists and regula- tors in the seed world to try and strengthen these recommendations to encourage the use of more organic seed,” she said. In spring 2019, the National Organic Standards Board recommended updating
organic seed guidance for the National Organic Program to spur more production. Similar recommendations were made in 2005 and 2008. Sonnabend said the latest recommendations are more strident in seeking to uphold a “founding principle of organics.” In Europe, regulatory pressure helped boost the organic seed market, said Jared Zystro, research and education assis- tant director of the agricultural advoca- cy group Organic Seed Alliance, a Port
By Caitlin Fillmore Though certified organic farming acre- age has steadily grown in California and the U.S., farmers say they still have trouble securing organic seeds for planting. Some growers continue to call for a tightening of national organic standards to drive needed growth in organic seed production. They say current rules allow exemptions to using organic seeds, thus slowing development of seed varieties and discouraging production of more diverse seed options for organic farmers. At the Organic Growers Summit in Monterey last month, a panel discussion entitled “Challenges of Organic Seed Production” revealed continuing frus- trations for growers who want certified organic seeds. During the discussion, Theojary Crisantes Jr., chairman of the Organic Produce Association, urged growers to commit to producing and procuring more organic seeds. Crisantes is chief operations officer of Wholesum Family Farms, which has pro- duction in Watsonville, Arizona and Mexico. Two years ago, the firm began producing organic cucumber and pepper seeds in part- nership with a Dutch seed company. “This has been our journey,” Crisantes told attendees. “I encourage everybody to think about this and be part of the solu- tion—one, by procuring the seeds but maybe even thinking about the produc- tion of seeds.” Zea Sonnabend, an organic farmer at Fruitilicious Farm in Watsonville, blamed exemptions to organic standards for di- minishing demand for organic seeds. While regulations for other aspects of the national organic certification process re- main strict, she said, using organic seed re- mains a less stringent aspect of certification. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires farmers to use organic seed to be certified organic. The USDA National Organic Program requirements state that
organic producers “must use organically grown seeds, seedlings and planting stock.” But USDA also allows exemptions that enable growers to use untreated, conven- tionally grown seeds when they cannot source organic seeds in the “form, func- tion and quality that was required for production,” Sonnabend said.
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