USA: National Organic Standard Board's fall meeting preview

The National Organic Standards Board will hold their fall meeting from 15 to 18 October 2012, CCOF reports. The public comment period runs from late August through the first three weeks of September. Petitioned substances will take up the largest part of the agenda, including petitions by the Crops Subcommittee for biodegradable mulch, Oxidized Lignite (a form of humic acid), and PGML (propylene glycol monolaurate) for use as a miticide. There will also be a report and proposal from the Inerts Working Group, and a report from the Fire Blight Working Group. The Crops Subcommittee and the Ad-Hoc GMO Subcommittee will provide a joint discussion document about seed purity.
 

The Handling Subcommittee has the largest agenda. Continuing with petitions for added nutrients in infant formula, the group will review L-carnitine, L-methionine, Beta carotene, Taurine, Nucleotides, Ascorbyl palmitate, Lutein, and Lycopene. Other petitioned items include barley betafiber and sugar beet fiber. There will also be a discussion document on "other ingredients" that are found in formulations of some handling substances on the National List. Livestock Subcommittee subjects include a discussion document on omnivore diets for poultry, petitions for Nonanoic Acid and pet food Amino Acids, and a report from the recently-established GMO Vaccine Working Group.

A lot of gray areas in NOSB policy were identified in the last few months, so the Policy Development Subcommittee will deal with public communications, conflict of interest, updating the petition and technical review process, and confidential business information in petitions. The Certification Subcommittee, jointly with the GMO Ad-Hoc Subcommittee, will provide input to the NOP on their response to the Office of the Inspector General on the role of GMO residue testing in feed and forage.

CCOF