U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving ahead with the rulemaking process for organic aquaculture production and certification.
In a memorandum last week, Miles McEvoy, deputy administrator of the National Organic Program (NOP), said the rulemaking process is expected to take two years.
The purpose of the memorandum was to formally ask the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to review a list of substances to be added to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances for use in organic aquaculture; the NOSB will look at whether these substances are compliant with the Organic Foods Production Act.
Existing U.S. rules do not allow any seafood to bear the coveted “USDA Organic” label due to the lack of standards for organic aquaculture production and certification, though some seafood products are labeled as organic because they’ve been certification by a third-party outfit such as Naturland in Germany.
