USDA Updates Organic Regulations Over Dairy and Meat Producers

After years of discussion and review, the USDA announced their plans to strengthen organic regulations on organic dairy and meat producers, mandating that animals have to have at least 120 days out in a pasture.

Before this, the existing rules were consider vague, by some, and only required that the animals had to have “access” to pastures. Critics of the old policy have said for years that the loophole allowed dairies to claim organic while maintaining factory-farm like conditions and operate at odds with the full intension of "organic" and mislead consumers in the process.

Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at the Cornucopia Institute (WI), had battled for the change had this to say in a Cornucopia press release.