Fate of organic hydroponics still unsettled
Same song, repeat verse.
The next meeting of the National Organic Standards Board is in late October and the future status of organic certified hydroponic container-based greenhouse operations remains an open question.
The NOSB, a 15-member federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, met via conference on Aug. 14 to discuss hydroponics in organic food production. Board members are responsible for making recommendations whether substances should be allowed in organic production or handling and advise the secretary of agriculture on other aspects of the organic regulations.
The discussion of organic certification of hydroponics — growing plants in sand, gravel or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil — has been active since 2015. At that time, the National Organic Program appointed 16 members to a task force to explore hydroponic and aquaponic production practices and their alignment with the USDA organic regulations. The USDA has provided no definitive guidance to state certifiers on the issue. Some state organic certifiers will certify hydroponic operations, but many do not.
An April meeting of the National Organic Standards Board earlier this year yielded no recommendation on the topic from the board to the USDA.
Based on the web broadcast of the NOSB meeting Aug. 14, Lee Frankel, executive director for the Coalition for Sustainable Organics — an industry group supporting organic certification for hydroponic and container-based systems — said he believes a majority of the members on the NOSB crops subcommittee want to put forward a proposal that would eliminate hydroponic and many container-based organic operations from organic certification. Frankel said the proposal would limit the amount of nitrogen delivered in liquid form to near the plant, which he said would require container-based greenhouse growing operations to “preload” the growing container with high levels of nitrogen prior to planting. The proposal also refers to minimum levels of compost or soil in containers. If the proposal is put forward, Frankel said the USDA will publish it by mid-September, allowing about 45 days before the next meeting of the NOSB on Oct. 31.
Frankel said the draft proposal appears to lack support from a “super-majority,” or at least 10 members of the 15-member board.
“More members of the NOSB know the importance of site-specific conditions and understand that a one-size fits all approach may be against organic principles,” he said.
