other label stuck on a product. There is a lot of concern among some members
of this committee that it definitely should not be another end-consumer label.
Jim Pierce: Using this as another sustainable agriculture consumer label threatened many on the committee, from NGOs to producers and OTA members. As
soon as we got past that into this behind-the-scenes-incentive-programs base, a
lot more came together. I wouldn’t say by any means we’re all in agreement,
but that was a breakthrough moment.
Linda Brown: The flip side of this argument is that there are already sustainability labels in the marketplace and certifiers who are promoting their labels as the
sustainable option to organic in the marketplace—and more are coming. They
are happening in sector-specific areas; for example, in the wine industry there
are five or six sustainability programs which are now beginning to show up on
wine labels. There are examples in the floral sector as well. While I agree
strongly with the idea that there’s a need for incentives to drive people toward
better practices, I actually do think it’s very important for a label to be considered so that all of these proprietary initiatives in the marketplace are held
against some kind of standard that has gone through a transparent review
process. None of the claims in the marketplace today have had a comparable
level of diverse stakeholder input.
OP: What does the timeline look like for the standard? How can processors or the com-
munity at large get involved?
Amanda Raster: At this point, we anticipate that this process will be a couple
of years of work. There are a lot of issues on the table that need to be addressed, and it’s going to take a lot of
time and thought to address them
properly.
How can organic processors get involved? The task forces are open to
anyone who is interested and wants to
get engaged, and subcommittees will
be formed after the task force work is
completed. Anyone can participate on
any subcommittees that apply to their
particular areas of interest. There’ll
also be a chance for public comment
and review of the final draft standards.
Lastly, anyone is welcome to provide
comment on the process or any of the
working documents at any time
throughout the standard development
phase. There is a pretty broad range of
ways to participate in this process at
many levels.
Linda Brown: I’ve participated in standard settings through the International Standards Organization, ISO,
which some people jokingly refer to as
the international sightseeing organization, which means, the barrier to participation is the fact that you have to
travel to meetings all over the world.
This tends to preclude people without
resources from participating. This
process, however, is largely being done
via teleconference so people can participate where they are.
Q: Where can our readers go for more in-
formation?
Amanda Raster: They can go to
www.leonardoacademy.org. There, we
have a page devoted to the development of this standard that includes
background information on the
process, updates, public documents
and a detailed Q&A. Interested parties
can also email me at amanda@
leonardoacademy.org.
