California cannabis regulators have been hard at work, drafting up regulations for a state-wide organic certification. This four-person team inside of CalCannabis, a branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), is putting together a program comparable to the National Organic Program (NOP) to ensure a smooth transition for when cannabis becomes federally legal. The NOP owns the USDA Organic Seal.
This four-person group, known as OCal, has been working on these regulations since 2018. Up until March of this year, OCal had been gathering information from organic cannabis farmers throughout the state of California. Until August of 2019, they were obtaining relevant input and evaluating their resources. From now until April 2020, they will be drafting the regulations, which will open for public comment when they are complete.
The plan is to have an organic cannabis certification available in 2021. We can expect these regulations to be similar to the NOP organic criteria as they formed them with the federal laws in mind. Many cannabis farmers who claim to be organic are already following these regulations, prepared ahead of others for the certification process. Because there is no state-mandated organic certification for cannabis at the moment, it is only third-party certifiers and the farmers themselves providing words of assurance to their consumers. A handful of these third-party certifiers are deemed credible and often have more strenuous criteria to meet than the state organic certification, however, it is still wise to do your research on the farms you purchase from.
The California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) group has influenced the matter. They have been working alongside CalCannabis to ensure the certification criteria are accurate and up to standards. They aim to act as a check and balance system for OCal, ensuring they maintain specific measures that consumers already expect. They also hope to simplify the process for current USDA organic cultivators so they can easily incorporate cannabis into their crops when it becomes federally legal.
When the time comes for a state-wide organic cannabis certification, we can expect to see those falsely claiming to be organic kicked to the curb and the actual organic practicers highlighted. In an industry where it’s his word against hers, consumers can never be one-hundred percent sure that their purchased product is what it claims to be. At the moment, consumers rely on credible third-party certifiers to bring truth to light, so they know that the product they are consuming is genuine.
At Giving Tree Farms, we are certified Simply Clean by The Cannabis Conservancy and use all organic methods to grow our crops. Our Simply Clean certification highlights our sustainability efforts by reviewing our farm plan, training procedures, IPM practices, product testing, and more. In addition, the cooperative we are a part of, Hive Mendocino, is also certified Simply Clean. We take pride in growing organic and sustainable products, and we know our consumers do, too. If you’d like more information on Giving Tree Farms’ products, please complete a Wholesale Account form, and we will contact you very soon!