Consensus Reached on Amended National Standards of Canada for Organic Agriculture

By Anne Caron, Standards Specialist, Standards Division

The Committee on Organic Agriculture has reached a consensus on the two amended standards for organic agriculture after three technical meetings. The amended standards were published in January 2009.

In April 2007, the Canadian Organic Growers (COG) approached the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) requesting amendments to the recently published National Standards of Canada for Organic Agriculture, CAN/CGSB-32.310-2006 Organic Production Systems — General Principles and Management Standards and CAN/CGSB-32.311-2006 Organic Production Systems — Permitted Substances List. Even though the standards had just been published in September 2006, the amendments were required to address items from the previous revision that had been placed on a future work list and the additional changes required as a result of the Organic Products Regulations put in place by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in December 2006.

The amended standards address items such as the removal of references to and the discretion of certification bodies throughout the standard, clarification of technical requirements, the addition of new technical requirements and substances to the Permitted Substances Lists, and the changes required by the Organic Products Regulations.

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Federal Regulatory Regime for Organic Products

The regulations will require mandatory certification to the National Standard of Canada for Organic Production Systems for agricultural products represented as organic in import, export and inter-provincial trade, or that bear the federal organic agricultural product legend (or logo). The regulations will come into effect June 30, 2009. Compliance monitoring and enforcement activities will be carried out by the CFIA.

The success of CGSB’s standardization endeavours is largely due to the contributions of the Committee members. The CGSB would like to thank the committee members for their participation in the development of these amended standards and looks forward to a continuing association with them.

For more information on the standards, contact Anne Caron, Standards Specialist, at 819-956-8615.

For more information on the proposed regulations for organic products, contact CFIA Media Relations at 613-228-6682.