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Organic certification
In the early days of the organic farming movement in the 1960s, most organic farmers' production was sold locally to people who knew and trusted them. As demand increased in the 1970s, the supply chain grew, with processors and distributors buying up large quantities of organic commodities and then selling them to retail outlets far from the fields where the food had been grown. The need arose for some kind of verification that the products had indeed been grown on farms following recognized organic practices.
The third-party certification system was developed to meet this need. By the 1980s, dozens of certification groups—many of them founded by farmers—had been created both here in the U.S. and in other countries. (Robert Rodale and the Rodale Institute were instrumental in these early efforts, helping to write and administer one of the first organic certification programs in the United States.)
All of these early, regional organic standards had a lot in common in terms of basic principles, but they sometimes differed when it came to details. Consistent international standards were needed, especially for exporters. European importers were balking at buying U.S. products not certified to European standards. Concern was also growing about fraudulent organic labels on products that were actually not organic at all.
In 1990, in response to widespread demand from the organic sector, Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act, charging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with creating a federal system for organic certification. After prolonged debate, the National Organic Program Standards were finally implemented in 2002.
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