National Standards, Eh?

Canada’s new organic regulations

by Dag Falck

You may have heard that Canada will soon have its own national organic regime. When you wake up on July 1, you can begin to appreciate the countless volunteer hours put in by organic folk to create a whole new department of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which will enforce the Organic Products Regulation being implemented June 30.

What? you say. You thought we already had organic all around us. Every store now carries at least some organic, so what’s new?

What’s new is that, after many attempts, most of the organic sector and the government have come together to create organic regulations, or standards, in Canada. This means that organic products traded across the provinces or coming from other countries will need to be consistent with the Canadian Organic Regime (COR). It also means we’ll no longer be riding on the shirttails of the United States’s organic regulations, as we’ve been doing since they came out in 2002. It’s not that we aren’t thankful to our neighbour for letting us use their system, but hey, now we’ll have our own, eh?

As things are now, consumers cannot be sure if products claiming to be organic have been properly certified. It’s not uncommon to find products on store shelves that make organic claims without consistent labelling components such as the name of the certifier and appropriate category of organic (see “What the Labels Will Mean” below). Also, currently there is little that can be done about inaccurately labelled products. But come July 1, eaters across the country will know that all federally regulated organic products are following the same standard, and they can expect to see consistent and accurate labelling.

The Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) owns the organic standards. The board has developed strict, practical, and workable benchmarks for organic growing and manufacturing by working closely with the Organic Technical Committee (made up of about 60 experienced folk from every aspect of the organic production community). Following the standard will be required by the COR.

An organic product will need to be certified if it is coming from outside of B.C. Organic goods produced locally will not need to follow the COR, but if you want organic you can trust, then it needs to be certified. Products certified through the Certified Organic Associations of British Columbia (COABC—the last acronym, I promise) follow the same standard as the COR. When purchasing local goods, either buy direct from a farmer you know or look for the B.C. checkmark (the logo appears on p. 38), which guarantees the national standard has been adhered to. SV

As chair of the CGSB’s Permitted Substances List (PSL) working group, Dag Falck is intimately involved with Canada’s organic standards work. His biggest challenge has been overcoming his dyslexia when working with acronyms.