USA: National Organic Standards Board spring meeting

The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) consists of fifteen members of the organic community. It advises the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on which substances should be allowed or prohibited in organic farming and processing, based on criteria under the Organic Foods Production Act, according to the definition by USDA . Public NOSB meetings are usually held twice a year. The last meeting took place in Texas from 29 April to 2 May 2014. The Cornucopia Institute - among others - has documented the the meeting, and published a range of pictures. Details are available here and here.

On April 29, representatives of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and March Against Monsanto San Antonio (MAMSA) staged a protest at the meeting, OCA reports. The groups disrupted the meeting in order to protest the USDA National Organic Program's (NOP) changes to the process for removing non-organic ingredients and materials from the NOP’s National List of substances allowed and prohibited in products certified as organic by the USDA. OCA political director, Alexis Baden-Mayer, was arrested when she refused to allow the meeting to go on until the issue was addressed. More information is available here.