Updated: Tue Jun. 30 2009 2:45:12 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has given a new level of credibility to the organics industry, establishing a national set of standards that products must now meet in order to be designated "organic."

Under the new Organic Products Regulations, only products that meet specific requirements set out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will qualify for the organic designation.

The new rules require that products with multiple ingredients must have 95 per cent organic content in order to be labelled with the new Biologique Canada Organic Logo.

If a product doesn't meet that standard, the producer will have to specify on the label the percentage of organic materials that the product includes.

"This organic logo allows consumers to make informed, confident choices," said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in a news release.

"At the same time, the new regulations will allow Canadian organic farmers to have their products recognized in this emerging market."

The standards apply to the following products:

• food and drink intended for consumption
• livestock
• livestock feed
• the cultivation of plants

The regulations will apply to both domestic and imported products, the CFIA said. But products coming from the U.S. that meet American organic standards won't have to undergo re-certification.

Instead, an "equivalency" agreement has been struck between the two nations so that certified organic products in each country retain their status regardless of what side of the border they are on.

"This agreement gives Canadian consumers more organic choices and organic farmers increased trade opportunities," stated the release.

Stephane O'Neil, a spokesperson the for CFIA's Canada Organics Office, said the new standards create a new standard of fairness for producers.

"Under the voluntary system producers who did want to provide certification for their customers incurred costs, and the producers who didn't, we could say they had an advantage," O'Neil told CTV.ca

"But now certification is required for everyone. We've created a level playing field for consumers."

O'Neil said some organic producers opposed the implementation of the national standard on philosophical grounds, believing government intervention is unnecessary in the industry.

But the Organic Council of Ontario says the standards will give greater assurance to people about the quality and value of organic products - and provide a clearer guideline for those who produce or are looking to produce organic foods.

"Those who might have thought they were organic, but didn't know exactly what that meant, now have a precedence to follow," Ted Zettle, a board of director for the Council, told CTV.ca in a phone interview from Guelph, Ont.

"The new regulations will also give the CFIA the ability to enforce those standards, so if there were fraudulent claims, the government would be able to follow up on those and deal with them."

Comments are now closed for this story

Dave T
Not sure about this organic thing. If the cow that is going to be my steak is sick, I'd prefer that it get a penicillin shot. Sounds better than eating it "organically".

Chris D
Wow, that only took ten years.

Karen in Calgary
The organic label isn't going far enough, or rather perhaps isn't explained enough. In the US if something is labelled organic is also means it is 'GMO free'. I would sure like to know if I'm eating GMO in Canada or not.

Tom-Eric
95%
Partially organic isn't organic.
Sorry.

Lucky_Eddie
Now if only someone could scrape up a shred of credible evidence that this high priced stuff is actually better for you in any way. I note that the food protection agencies in all major countries all state that there is no such evidence.

James
Everything you eat is Genetically Modified. If not in the lab then by human farmers over the last 100 years. No crop variety is "Organic", all crops have been modified and cross breed to be durable and high producing. No soil on earth is virgin soil and all have been modified to optimized growth. Without GM you would be eating bland food with huge amounts of waste in the harvesting of those crops. "Organic" is a marketing technique used to make you feel better as a consumer. Use your intelligence and Critical Thinking to understand the marketing that is part of the whole issue here.

Dana
It's about freakin' time. How long have we been waiting for this? Hopefully this will weed out the useless hangers-on who slap any damned claim on their products.

bunny
I think this is a good idea.Anyone can slap a label on, and they have, to say this is organic.I wash my fruit and vegetables really well.I do not buy organic, I see no need,but for those that do, this is needed

Les in Rossland
This new law is going to end up like the thousand of other bills/laws that are sworn into law. Who is going to enforce them? Is there going to be an inspector at every farm? Is there going to an inspector at every processing plant? Is there going to be an inspector standing at every market stand that sells "ORGANIC" products?

Chad in Ottawa
Indeed this doesn't go far enough. Since we need to label everything enough so that people can feed their favorite over-hyped fears and scientifically baseless beliefs in what is healthy or not, I think labels should include the amount of glycoalkaloids, BPA, any curses on the farms that they were produced on, and the net amount of positive or negative energy thoughts people have had about this particular food item.

How else can my neighbourhood clerk replace the years of education, training, and expertise of Health Canada scientists with his own expertise based on something he read on a web site or got in an email from a friend?

This information is insufficient. Shame on Health Canada.

Ed, Toronto
> I would sure like to know if I'm eating GMO in Canada or not.

Processing combines ingredients from all kinds of places, so it's all but impossible to determine that something is GMO-free for mass-produced foods. Companies that take the trouble to have a narrow group of suppliers and make sure there are no GMO's are perfectly free to label their foods as GMO-free. One of my favourite jams (Paulaner) in the US does this. Perhaps others will as well, if the anti-GMO religion ever grows like the organic one has.

Of course, as someone else pointed out, it's self-deception as virtually all foods are GMO. Carrots, tomatoes, corn, wheat, etc. are nothing like their natural ancestors. And many fruits and vegetables didn't even exist until people did intentional cross-breeding. Still, once people make up their minds, they hate to be confused by facts.

Mike
Hmmm my brain tells me that buying veggies that have been soaked in chemicals/pesticides is worse than ones that haven't. Apparently Lucky Eddie and James missed that part (do you think any government's food agency is going to be allowed to say that 90% of the food being produced is actually swimming in chemicals that are bad for us?).

Trevor
There is a vast difference between genetic selection over a long period of time to find traits suitable to a particular area and genetically modifying an organism.

The organic standard demands that no GMO products are used and the certification bodies verify that none are being utilized. This is why there is virtually no organic canola products in the marketplace.

G
Wow...if Organic is not on the label...what are we eating?

Food containing inorganics?

Why not add another label?

Not Organic...food and food products contained in this package contain ingredients that in small doses are safe to consume but in large doses can lead to...

TR- ON
It is a step in the right direction now we just need it to be 100%

Nic
To Dave T:

If the cow is sick, maybe it's because it's living in cramped quarters and is fed unhealthy food. You have to look at the root of the problem.

Alain from Kingston
They is no such thing as totally ORGANIC on earth.

There is so much pollution in the air and water that all of our food is polluted.

The only way to have totally ORGANIC food is to grow it in a controlled greenhouse where the the water is distilled to remove all pollution, the earth is totally clean and the air is scrubbed. Then take heritage seeds and plant them in this controlled enviroment.

Imagine what the cost of our food would be then.

Wake up people.

Lucky_Eddie
> do you think any government's food agency is going to be allowed to say that 90% of the food being produced is actually swimming in chemicals that are bad for us?

The Grand Conspiracy Theory surfaces again!

> my brain tells me that buying veggies that have been soaked in chemicals/pesticides is worse than ones that haven't.

My brain says that if anyone actually "soaked" all their veggies, the extra high cost would make their products more expensive, not less. My brain also says that if your brain is right, it should be trivially easy to prove that organic foods are healthier. And that people who make their living from them would have a strong financial incentive to get that proof out.

But what does it matter? 95% organic? Add up the weights, volumes or whatever of all the things with chemical names (which therefore must be bad - that darn sodium chloride is poison!) and they surely come to far less than the allowed 5%. Looks like everything will be legally organic!

J E L
> There is a vast difference between genetic selection over a long period of time to find traits suitable to a particular area and genetically modifying an organism.

I can't think of any difference except time. Can you? What is it? Is it harmful? In what way? Give real life verifiable examples.

al
This governement hasn't a clue what needs to be done. Rating food by an organic percentage is nonesense. The consumer needs to know how much is organic. Like the Farm's WEB site ie: search by postal code.

And how dare the GVT specify the rules for organic foods when it doesn'T subsidize this industry whatsoever. Yet he will subsidize oil extraction and glorify NAFTA at the same time. Is there a specified mission?

Jay in GP
Did you know that organic food can be genetically modified up to 5% of their genetic structure and still be considered organic.

Mike
Trivially easy to prove? Sure lucky eddie, find me 50 individuals living in a Cdn City who has not yet been exposed to food that has been sprayed with pesticides or eaten/drunk milk from cows pumped full of antibiotics or BGH (illegally acquired by Cdn dairy farmers from the US).

Grand Conspiracy Theory? You forgot what happened last summer with the listeriosis scandal? How long did they keep that issue buried until they had no choice? What do you think they would do with something that would discredit the majority of the farming industry?

The more we vote with our dollars, the more affordable consumer prices of organic products becomes (and btw - it's more labour intensive but highly profitable for the organic farmers/food producers).

Mike
J E L - do you think that modifying the gene of a plant in a lab so that it no longer produces viable seeds every year thereby forcing farmers to have to buy new seed from Monsanto is the same as cross-breeding the pollen/grafting of two plants?

Non-GMO Steve
I refuse to buy produce from the US. My chances of having non-GMO is better if I buy local. As said by a previous person ... 95% organic is not organic.

Stacy M
Now what about the same for skin care products that claim they are organic?

MuskyBuck
As a person that owns a business within this industry I can most certainly make this post to tip off Canadians.

This is lip service and amounts to nothing, in fact this will make it even easier to confuse retailers and allow unethical distributors to 'claim' and use this stamp in order to gain sales.

As a legitimate practitioner I can most certainly also inform Canadians that when it comes to 'natural products' within the herbal industry, neither Health Canada nor the CFIA is doing anything to stop groups that are here in Canada distributing 'laced' materials.

These companies doing so are hiding behind the various web servers and continue to do business.

This is also because retail locations know the laws but will not care as long as the material being sold is cheap enough for them to see their margins.

We've been after Health Canada for years on this matter and have even singled out stores and offenders but investigators will NOT do anything about them.

In the province of Quebec Health Canada inspectors are turning a blind eye to products that are being sold on shelf even after those products have been recalled.

In Quebec we have singled out one inspector and have supplied information to Health Canada and directly to the Health Minister who has taken NO action.

Jess
Dave T - the steak your cow came from probably wouldn't be sick if it was raised ethically and organically in the first place.

I suggest you watch "Food Inc" or "Sacred Cow, Mad Cow" and you will forever change your eating habits!

Dale - Edmonton
Mike,

LOL - hardly "soaked" in chemicals - you've bought into the propaganda by all the big food processing companies that now control the majority of food production in the world. They also control 95% of "organic" production...