By JIM RUTLEDGE

D.C. Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Consumers have only two weeks to submit public comments on the USDA’s proposed rule changes that would roll back the agency’s “organic” labeling standards for livestock and poultry products.

The agency announced last month a rule change to its Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) final rule that was originally set to take effect on March 20, 2017. Rescinding the rule has been extended to May 14, 2018. The public has until Jan. 17 to submit comments to the USDA.

The proposed change amends the organic livestock and poultry production requirements by rescinding the agency’s rules governing livestock handling and transport for slaughter and avian living conditions, and care and production practices.

In a statement, the USDA said it was concerned that the proposed rule “may hamper market-driven innovation and evolution and impose unnecessary regulatory burdens.”

The proposed rule was first introduced seven years ago and shifts conditions for animal welfare under “organic” labeling, requiring organic egg farms to give hens at least a square foot of space inside as well as outdoors. The final rule would have prohibited large-scale organic egg farms in which birds are kept in barns, some containing as many as 180,000 at a time, at a density of three per square foot of floor space and never allowed outside.

Had the original changes been finalized, farmers and food producers would have had five years to implement the new standards sought by the agency’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). The USDA’s Dec. 15 announcement brought swift response from several farm groups, including the National Farmers Union (NFU), which had supported the OLPP final rule.

“This is a very disappointing decision by the USDA, both for American family farmers and for consumers,” the NFU said on behalf of its 200,000 members.

“Currently, we have too much inconsistency in how organic certifiers apply animal welfare standards to farming and ranching operations. This, in turn, endangers the organic label’s integrity and leads to consumer confusion. The OLPP rule would have helped mitigate these concerns by standardizing organic livestock and poultry practices for the voluntary National Organic Program.”

The Organic Trade Assoc. (OTA), a widespread supporter of the OLPP rule, said it was “dismayed” by the USDA’s action: “This groundless step by USDA is being taken against a backdrop of nearly universal support among the organic businesses and consumers for the fully vetted rules that USDA has now rejected.”

“By the department’s own count, out of the more than 47,000 comments the department has received in the last public comment for the regulation, 99 percent were in favor of the rule becoming effective,” said OTA CEO Laura Batcha. Of those comments she said there were “only 28 supporting withdrawing the rule.”

In September, the OTA filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to force USDA to require the agency move forward on its original organic livestock and poultry standards. Late last month, the OTA amended its complaint, saying, “We will continue our fight to uphold organic standards that this administration continues to willfully ignore by repeatedly delaying this fully vetted and final voluntary organic standard.”

Many commodity groups, however – including the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc. (NCBA) and even larger groups – announced support for the USDA’s move. NPPC President Ken Maschhoff said pork producers had a number of problems with the regulations, including animal and public health concerns and the fact that animal production practices have nothing to do with the basic concept of “organic.”

He cited the complexity the standards would have added to the organic certification process, creating significant barriers to existing and new organic producers.

Last year, sales of organic products reached $47 billion, according to the OTA’s latest industry survey, $3.7 billion more than the previous year. The USDA’s organic rules and regulations may be found online at www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic-livestock-and-poultry-practices

For details and instructions on how to submit public comment, visit www.federalregister.gov and search for Docket No. AMS-NOP-15-0012, then select the document published on Dec. 18, 2017. Or, you may contact Paul Lewis, director of the USDA’s Standards Division, at 202-720-3252, and refer to the above docket number.