Washington Insider-- Thursday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

Incoming Senate Transportation Chairman Will Not Focus on Passenger Rail Service

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who is scheduled to become chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in January, says he isn't much interested in taking up a long-awaited Senate passenger rail reauthorization bill.

Authorization for Amtrak expired in 2013, but the Senate has yet to introduce a bill reauthorizing the program. Back in September, the House Transportation Committee approved a bill that would cut 40% of Amtrak's funding, but that cut appears to have been undone in the omnibus appropriations bill that Congress is expected to approve by the end of this week. Both chambers would be required to approve an Amtrak reauthorization bill in 2015 for the program to go forward.

Since Thune represents a section of the country where rail freight problems have plagued shippers for the past year, he and his committee can be expected to take a greater interest in moving oil and grain by rail than people.

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Maryland's Next Governor to Fight Current Efforts to Reduce Phosphorus Pollution

Republican Maryland Gov.-Elect Larry Hogan says he plans to fight a proposal by the current administration that would use a "phosphorus management tool" to reduce that amount of the nutrient that is polluting Chesapeake Bay. "I am going to do everything I can to make sure these ill-conceived regulations are never implemented as currently written," Hogan told the annual Maryland Farm Bureau convention earlier this week.

Under the plan, Maryland Department of Agriculture would phase in the proposed restrictions, with the first restrictions coming into force in 2017 and full implementation by 2025. They are intended to help reduce phosphorus runoff from Eastern Shore farm fields that have been fertilized with the poultry litter that is so easily available from the area's many chicken operations.

One problem for Hogan will be that the federal Environmental Protection Agency is leading a mandatory Chesapeake Bay restoration program that requires Maryland and the five other states (plus the District of Columbia) that are included in the estuary's watershed to implement by 2025 all the policies and practices necessary for recovery of the Bay's ecosystem. Hogan reportedly has not yet developed an alternative to the phosphorous management tool that would help the state achieve EPA's goals for restoring the health of the Bay.

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Washington Insider: Organic Program Audits

The Wall Street Journal recently criticized USDA's organics program, following an internal USDA report of a review of its operations.

In fact, the organics program at USDA is unusual. It was authorized by Congress to allow a new labeling system that officially certifies that foods or other agricultural products were produced without use of synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation or genetic engineering.

The Journal notes that while goods produced under "organic" rules can cost as much as double that of conventional produce, consumers actually have no way to gauge whether such claims are true. Instead, they must rely on guarantees from companies and industry nonprofit groups that the food was grown within federal guidelines.

This is because, despite the importance of production rules, USDA does not actually do the certification groundwork itself. It instead relies on some 81 accredited "certifying agents." So, the main story reported by the Journal is that when these certifiers are audited, they sometimes don't stand up very well. Of 37 certifiers that had a complete review this year, 23 were cited for failing certification audits, USDA said. The 23 that failed had not properly conducted onsite inspections or correctly reviewed applications for organic certification, among other things, the report said.

In addition, the Journal says it looked into USDA inspection records since 2005 and found that 38 of the 81 certifying agents failed on at least one occasion and over time, 40% of the 81 certifiers have been flagged by the USDA for incomplete inspections; 16% of certifiers failed to cite organic farms' potential use of banned pesticides and antibiotics; and 5% failed to prevent potential commingling of organic and nonorganic products.

Certifying agents are often small nonprofit groups, state-run agencies or even, in some cases, large multinationals. Each is paid by the farms or firms they certify. USDA says one reason for the failures is the "very rigorous accreditation process." Those that fall out of compliance, like the 23 cited this year, get the opportunity to correct the problem but are at risk of being removed from the certification program if the problem isn't fixed.

USDA added that its certifiers were in compliance with 97% of its regulations, the Journal said but did not say what that might mean in terms of product quantities.

Other observers were less accepting of the certifiers' performance. "The whole setup of the system needs to be revamped," said Chenglin Liu, a professor of law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Professor Liu has studied the organic-certification system and has raised concerns about the thoroughness of certifying agents and the lack of frequent checks by USDA of these certifiers. "That leaves a lot of room for mistakes."

Nevertheless, retailers who rely on the USDA label like Whole Foods, a leading organic supermarket chain, believe the organic stamp increases the level of "integrity" for retailers and consumers, says Joe Dickson, senior global quality-standards coordinator at the company. At the same time, Dickson, who also is a member of the USDA's national organic standards board, says the system will be improved when the agency adopts a real-time database of organic certified operations.

USDA said it's working to "increase the timeliness and accuracy of our list of certified operations" by developing a new system that will "serve as a modernized list of certified operations." This system, the agency said, will "close any current loopholes created by the constraints of the current database."

In the midst of a more general push for mandatory labels for genetically modified foods, the Official Organic label is often cited several ways. It is an existing, official label consumers can turn to if they wish. However, advocates are often reluctant to make that argument because organic foods tend to been more costly, as GM label opponents argue will be one result of the proposed labels.

Now, the new USDA review can be expected to play into that debate since it highlights significant weaknesses in the official system — even to the point of raising questions about the meaning of the official label, or, perhaps any label designed to identify GMOs in food products.

That debate seems to be intensifying, as new legislation is proposed both at the state and national level, proposals that should be watched carefully by producers as they are debated, Washington Insider believes.

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(GH/CZ)

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