[MPWG] NEWS: Defending Group Organic Certification (letter deadline today)

[Olivia Kwong]

See http://www.equalexchange.com/defending-group-organic-certification for 
further information and the National Organic Coalition's sign-on letter.

----- Forwarded Message -----

Defending Group Organic Certification
Equal Exchange Stands with Small Farmers and their Co-ops

Many of our friends have heard the news about the USDA's National Organic 
Program ruling that appears to indicate an end to group organic 
certification of small farmer co-operatives. This is of course a concern 
for Equal Exchange because the core of our mission is partnering with 
small family farmers and supporting their organizations. Group organic 
certification has been key to our success - and the success of our farmer 
partners - over the years. In particular, it has made organic 
certification accessible to poor farmers in the developing world who would 
otherwise be unable to afford it.

But group certification is also crucial to the organic movement as a 
whole:

     * Group certification makes access to the organic market possible for 
poor farmers and their families, improving their incomes and protecting 
their communities, farm workers and the environment from harmful 
agricultural chemicals. Ending group certification would devastate these 
communities, making certification for individual farmers prohibitively 
expensive and resulting in increased rural poverty and migration, and a 
return to less sustainable, chemical-dependent farming. Farmers' co-ops 
that have spend years developing organic programs to help them access the 
US marketplace would see all of this work go to waste;

     * Group certification is central to the growing organic food industry 
in our own country. As demand for organic products such as organic coffee, 
tea, cocoa and sugar continues to grow dramatically, the process enables 
buyers to access quality organic food grown by family farmers around the 
world. Ending group certification would cut off supply chains for hundreds 
of businesses that depend on co-operatives for their organic products, and 
increase prices for others. Particularly affected would be organizations - 
such as Equal Exchange - that are committed to Fair Trade as a model for 
empowering small farmers and their co-ops;

     * And of course, group certification also provides US consumers with 
delicious, nutritious organic foods grown with care by family farmers. 
Without group certification, consumers will be left with fewer choices as 
the supply of these products declines dramatically, raising retail prices 
and leaving only large farms and plantations in the organic system.

We at Equal Exchange believe in the original goals of the organic 
movement: creating a credible system that helps protect the environment, 
support family farmers and farm workers, and provides consumers with 
healthy, safe and nutritious food. A certification system that supports 
this effort must also have integrity. We believe that group organic 
certification has been very effective to date, and should be formalized 
and improved upon, rather than discarded.

We are therefore joining with other organizations - farmers, consumers, 
NGOs and the business community - in calling on the USDA to delay this 
ruling and instead focus on making group certification work better.