潜水简介：
- 有机交易协会宣布为期六个月的倡议，以利用关于设计和实施有机部门的自愿“审查”计划的最佳方式的想法。
- 为生成结果和有机机会的“GRO有机”计划被计划为私营部门，以帮助行业基金organic research, promotion and education. Input is being collected electronically between now and April 30使用一系列问题, along with any "big ideas" that might benefit organic farmers, companies or consumers.
- "We want GRO Organic to be a bold and engaged opt-in program that pools resources from everyone who can contribute so that we can collectively address critical needs across the organic sector," Laura Batcha, the OTA's CEO and executive director,在释放中说。"The need for more investment in organic is widely agreed upon — how we solve for it is what we must now work together to determine."
Dive Insight:
有机交易协会has been pushing for years for an organic industry checkoff program. The group petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2015 for such a program, but citing a lack of consensus within the industry, the agency在5月份选择终止建议的规则建立一个。
The group said USDA's rule termination reflects the agency's pattern of holding back progress of the $50-billion organic sector. OTA's CEO and Executive Director Laura Batchasaid last springthat the代理未能向前发展关于有机牲畜和家禽实践规则损害了有机乳制品和鸡蛋销售，而且她还指责政府干扰与国家有机标准委员会。
尽管有这些障碍，但该贸易集团表示已搬迁到今年夏天开始建立Gro有机计划。OTA表示，现在有四个原型计划准备在1月份推出“投资于关键需求，并在正式的自愿计划推出时作为投资的经过验证的投资项目。”它也加入了有机声音的“它并不复杂”努力为全国范围内的广告系列限制消费者混淆有机的努力。
OTA还表示已确定它将承担的三个额外计划。他们涉及对加强有机品牌的途径进行深入的消费者研究，支持土壤健康和气候变化研究，以帮助说明有机的积极影响，并在全国范围内提供更多有机延伸代理。
可以轻松排列足够的有机工业利益相关者来为自愿的“审判般的”计划提供资金 - 更不用说地管理它。虽然它也可能限制参与的农民和生产者的人数，但它将有助于帮助。OTA已经说过more than 26,000 certified organic growers, ranchers, processors, handlers and business owners operating today, but many of them would need to sign up to get anywhere near the $30 million that could be raised through a USDA-sponsored mandatory checkoff program.
行业面临其他挑战, including combating organic fraud and maintaining the integrity of the USDA Organic seal. Butconsumers continue to seek out organic foods and beveragesat an increasing rate, and manufacturers are responding by introducing more such products, so the group knows it has an engaged audience interested in what happens next.
征求意见如何塑造chec自愿”koff-like" program could be a good way to proceed since organic stakeholders probably have a lot of expertise they can share. If the GRO Organic program succeeds in attracting enough participants and sufficient funds, it could help move the industry through additional research, promotion and education. It might also illustrate that a determined trade association can make things happen without the support and participation of the USDA — and that more elements of the organic industry are invested in its future than was previously thought.
