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Hmmm.... Looks like everybody wants organic hops and organic hop farmers to give up and get real jobs.
How about a level playing field? So nobody actually cares about organic hops and organic brews?? Really?
This is a letter you can send to the appropriate folks if want change.
I have been hosed by this ruling.
When "Organic" Doesn't Quite Mean Organic
If an organic pig provides meat for an organic sausage, shouldn't it also provide the organic sausage casings? Shouldn't your organic beer be brewed with organic hops?
Not according to the National Organic Standards Board, which voted in April 2010 to continue to allow "USDA Organic" stickers to be slapped on organic sausage made with non-organic casing, beer made with conventional hops and several other non-organic and synthetic ingredients. As long as these ingredients are less than 5% and a certifier has made a determination that the organic version is not commercially available, the finished product may bear the "USDA Organic" seal. If the law were more strictly enforced and these ingredients were removed from the list, they would be advertised, more accurately, as "Made With Organic Ingredients."
HOPS
According to testimony submitted at the April 2010 NOSB meeting by the American Organic Hop Grower Association, organic hops are commercially available now and their continued placement on the National List is undermining the further development of organic hop production:
Today, there are unsold organic hops available on the spot market.
Today, organic hops are being used for the production of non-organic beer. This may seem like an accomplishment, but it would be better to see organic beer containing organic hops.
Nearly 100% of the non-organic hops that are being produced in 2010 are under contract, whereas less than 10% of the organic hops that are being produced in 2010 are under contract.
We have a situation where most of the organic hops remain uncontracted, even though the norm for the hop crop is to produce under contract and contracting is a common practice in sourcing other organic ingredients.
Since November 2009, four members of the AOHGA have listed their farms as suppliers on the Accredited Certifier’s Association’s 606 organic website. As of this date, not one farm has received an inquiry resulting from the site. Given the fact that certifiers require processors to have “a system in place that regularly searches” for organic ingredients or want to see commercial availability “reviewed regularly,” this is a disappointing development.
The basic question to ask is this – how many varieties of hops must be available before variety is no longer a reason for organic hops to be considered commercially unavailable? If the criteria to remove an ingredient from the list is that every variety of the crop is commercially available, then hops (along with chia) are the only crops that have been held to such a high standard. These are the only two crops on the 606 National List. Very few crops, if any, have every variety commercially available in an organic form.
If there are not enough varieties available organically today, then how many more are needed? Five, ten? What is the number? Every year, new varieties are showing up in the non-organic marketplace. Are these required to be grown organically before hops can be removed from the list? If so, we are dealing with a moving goal post.
Certifiers will not make this determination of the number of varieties needed, and even if they did, it would lead to different standards across the industry. We need a consistent standard.
No one would be surprised by the removal of hops from the list. Anyone involved in the organic world knows about the National List and the associated sunset provision. Placement on the 606 National List was a temporary provision established until an organic hop industry could be developed. Now, an organic hop industry has developed. There has been adequate notice of the possibility that hops could be removed from the list at any time through the petition process. Arguments that the removal of hops will disrupt organic beer production can be made forever. It is an easy argument to make when there has been little effort to use the available organic hops.
It is imperative to start the process now before organic production is completely discouraged, especially here in the U.S.
How about a level playing field? So nobody actually cares about organic hops and organic brews?? Really?
This is a letter you can send to the appropriate folks if want change.
I have been hosed by this ruling.
When "Organic" Doesn't Quite Mean Organic
If an organic pig provides meat for an organic sausage, shouldn't it also provide the organic sausage casings? Shouldn't your organic beer be brewed with organic hops?
Not according to the National Organic Standards Board, which voted in April 2010 to continue to allow "USDA Organic" stickers to be slapped on organic sausage made with non-organic casing, beer made with conventional hops and several other non-organic and synthetic ingredients. As long as these ingredients are less than 5% and a certifier has made a determination that the organic version is not commercially available, the finished product may bear the "USDA Organic" seal. If the law were more strictly enforced and these ingredients were removed from the list, they would be advertised, more accurately, as "Made With Organic Ingredients."
HOPS
According to testimony submitted at the April 2010 NOSB meeting by the American Organic Hop Grower Association, organic hops are commercially available now and their continued placement on the National List is undermining the further development of organic hop production:
Today, there are unsold organic hops available on the spot market.
Today, organic hops are being used for the production of non-organic beer. This may seem like an accomplishment, but it would be better to see organic beer containing organic hops.
Nearly 100% of the non-organic hops that are being produced in 2010 are under contract, whereas less than 10% of the organic hops that are being produced in 2010 are under contract.
We have a situation where most of the organic hops remain uncontracted, even though the norm for the hop crop is to produce under contract and contracting is a common practice in sourcing other organic ingredients.
Since November 2009, four members of the AOHGA have listed their farms as suppliers on the Accredited Certifier’s Association’s 606 organic website. As of this date, not one farm has received an inquiry resulting from the site. Given the fact that certifiers require processors to have “a system in place that regularly searches” for organic ingredients or want to see commercial availability “reviewed regularly,” this is a disappointing development.
The basic question to ask is this – how many varieties of hops must be available before variety is no longer a reason for organic hops to be considered commercially unavailable? If the criteria to remove an ingredient from the list is that every variety of the crop is commercially available, then hops (along with chia) are the only crops that have been held to such a high standard. These are the only two crops on the 606 National List. Very few crops, if any, have every variety commercially available in an organic form.
If there are not enough varieties available organically today, then how many more are needed? Five, ten? What is the number? Every year, new varieties are showing up in the non-organic marketplace. Are these required to be grown organically before hops can be removed from the list? If so, we are dealing with a moving goal post.
Certifiers will not make this determination of the number of varieties needed, and even if they did, it would lead to different standards across the industry. We need a consistent standard.
No one would be surprised by the removal of hops from the list. Anyone involved in the organic world knows about the National List and the associated sunset provision. Placement on the 606 National List was a temporary provision established until an organic hop industry could be developed. Now, an organic hop industry has developed. There has been adequate notice of the possibility that hops could be removed from the list at any time through the petition process. Arguments that the removal of hops will disrupt organic beer production can be made forever. It is an easy argument to make when there has been little effort to use the available organic hops.
It is imperative to start the process now before organic production is completely discouraged, especially here in the U.S.
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