Industry strives to reduce red tape
The Organic Council of Ontario has been created to bring all segments of the industry together

By Jeffrey Carter, Special to Ontario Farmer, Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Efforts are being made both federally and provincially to cut through some of the bureaucracy and paperwork that surround the organic industry.

At a provincial level, the Organic Council of Ontario (OCO) was created in January. According to the organization's executive administrator Kim Thorne, it's intended to represent all segments of the Ontario industry.

"The idea of the organization is to be a membership-based, non-profit representative of the entire organic industry in Ontario," says Thorne, who was at the recent Guelph Organic Conference.

The organization is being funded for three years through the federal
government's CanAdvance program. An interim board of volunteer directors is in place with Ted Soudant of Fieldgate Organic serving as chair. There are nine other board members, including farmer and processor representatives.

The first annual meeting of the organization is to be held on March 28 in Guelph.

Producer memberships are either $25 or $75, depending on the size of operation. Memberships are also available for associations, certifiers, retailers, marketers, processors and wholesalers, with annual fees ranging from $100 to $1,000.

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is working both on a federal level and in a North American context to support the organic industry business interests. A managing director for Canadian operations is expected to be put into place soon, according to Stephanie Wells of Ottawa, who's currently serving as the OTA's Canadian liaison.

Wells has been spending a lot of time providing an industry perspective for the new Organic Product Regulations that are to be phased in over the next two years.

There's a need to minimize bureaucratic duplication under the regulations. For instance, there's currently a certification process to prove that organic certifiers have ISO (International Standards Organization) accreditation.

Another concern relates to processors who've been asked to break down the percentage of organic content in their recipes on an ingredient by ingredient basis.

"Manufacturers went berserk," Wells says.

While there's logic in the rule in order to determine the overall percentage of organic content in any given product, processors are rightfully concerned they'll lose proprietary control over recipes. A viable alternative is to have CFIA inspectors, when on-site, examine recipes but not copy them down, she says.

Wells says there is also concern related to the current "substance list." She advises processors to check the list and to contact her if any of their needed ingredients are not on it.

The website for OTA Canada is www.ota.com/otacanada.html

To learn more about the OCO, go to www.organiccouncil.ca.

 

The Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC) wishes to thank Ontario Farmer for permission to reproduce this article on our website.

 

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