04.01.05
Persisting in the American Herbal Products Association’s (AHPA)—Silver Spring, MD—efforts to obtain U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmation that qualified herbal supplements can bear official organic labeling, AHPA president Michael McGuffin spoke to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in early March as it met in Washington, DC. “Dietary supplements that contain herbal ingredients are clearly within the scope of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990,” Mr. McGuffin told the board. Over the years, positions released by the National Organic Program (NOP) have been inconsistent, and at one point would have classified all dietary supplements as “nonagricultural products” and forbade them from carrying the organic label. On the other hand, according to AHPA, the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) clearly defines an “agricultural product” to be “any agricultural commodity or product, whether raw or processed…marketed in the United States for human or livestock consumption.” “When my members read what the NOP said about the inclusion of their products in the National Organic Program, they were confused,” Mr. McGuffin told the NOSB. “On the other hand, when they read the Organic Foods Production Act itself, there is no confusion whatsoever.” Mr. McGuffin concluded, “There is no principled argument to exclude organically grown and processed herbal products from the program’s scope.” Mr. McGuffin’s appearance before the NOSB is the latest effort in AHPA’s ongoing campaign to protect organic herbal products’ eligibility to qualify for the organic label.