The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) will hold its fall meeting October 23-25 in Pittsburgh, PA. Discussed will be substances petitioned for addition to or deletion from the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, substances due to sunset from the National List in 2021, and guidance on organic policies. 

Organic Trade Association’s Vice President of Regulatory and Technical Affairs Gwendolyn Wyard, Farm Policy Director Johanna Mirenda, and Director of Legislative Affairs and Coalitions Megan DeBates will attend the meeting and will submit written and oral recommendations to NOSB on behalf of our members. In addition, Dr. Jessica Shade of The Organic Center will give oral comments during the pre-meeting webinar on October 15. For more information or to connect at the meeting, contact Gwendolyn Wyard.  

Meeting Information:

October 23-25, 2019

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh City Center

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Shiftcon Social Media Conference, taking place October 3-5, 2019 in Atlanta, GA, is designed to support social media influencers who care about food, wellness, health and the environment. This conference blends professional workshops, networking, parties, and intense collaboration of change makers from all over under one roof. It will provide a solid focus on green content creation, food & environmental activism, organic and non-GMO food, social media marketing, educating the public, natural products, recruiting additional influencers and making this world better for future generations.

The Organic Center's Dr. Amber Sciligo will be a keynote speaker at the conference, and Organic Trade Association will host a breakout session on the #OrganicWeekDC's Influencer program and how the organic industry and Influencers can continue to collaborate to grow the organic movement. Contact Kelly Taveras if you'd like to connect at the Conference! 

Conference Information: 

October 3-5, 2019

Grand Hyatt in Buckhead

Atlanta, GA

The Organic Trade Association will be exhibiting at the Organic Produce Summit in Monterey, California taking place July 10-11, 2019. Come visit us at tabletop TT4! 

Laura Batcha, Organic Trade Association CEO/Executive Director, will be speaking in the educational breakout session titled "Organic Sales and Consumer Purchasing Analysis", taking place from 8:00 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. on Thursday, July 11th. Laura will be joined on the panel by Steve Lutz, Produce Marketing Association's Regional Vice President, and the session will be moderated by Kevin Coupe, Founder of MorningNewsBeat.com.

The Organic Trade Association will also host its first-ever Buyers Mission at the Organic Produce Summit during the morning of July 10th. Buyers in attendance will be from major retailers and importers invited from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Mexico, and others! Buyer profiles to come soon. As this is a limited time frame for meetings, supplier registration is limited and interested companies are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible to guarantee a spot! Registration will be closed after Friday June 21st. Register now!

In order to participate in the Buyers Mission, all of the products you promote must be USDA certified organic, produced in the USA, and made of 51% or more of U.S. based ingredients either by value (cost of the ingredients) or volume (against overall weight of the product).  This is the federal USDA regulation for participation and part of declaration you agree to when signing up for Organic Trade Association activities.  All supplier participants must complete Organic Trade Association’s onsite evaluation and a 6 month follow-up evaluation. For more information, contact Organic Trade Association's International Trade Manager, Alexis Carey. 

Summit Information: 

July 10-11, 2019 

Monterey Conference Center

Monterey, California 

The Spring 2019 National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) Meeting will be April 24-26 at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle, WA. During meeting, NOSB listens to public comments, discusses agenda items, and then votes in a public forum. Detailed meeting information, including agendas, locations, proposals, and public comments will be posted below as it becomes available. All meetings are free and open to the public. For information on previous meetings, visit the NOSB meetings page.

From Wednesday, April 16 to Friday, April 26, the NOSB will meet to discuss: substances petitioned for addition to or deletion from the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List), substances due to sunset from the National List in 2021, and guidance on the organic regulations. The Organic Trade Association’s Regulatory and Legislative staff (Gwendolyn Wyard, Megan DeBates and Johanna Mirenda) will be in attendance and providing oral comments. For more information, contact Johanna Mirenda.

Meeting information:

April 24 - 26

Renaissance Seattle Hotel

Seattle, WA

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo will be taking place in New Orleans, LA June 2-5, 2019. This is one of the largest events of its kind bringing together science of food professionals from around the globe representing all segments of the science of food profession—research and design, ingredients, safety and quality, technology, equipment, processing, packaging, manufacturing, suppliers and buyers, policy makers, and academics—all converging with the intention to inspire and transform collective knowledge into innovative solutions to help advance our planet’s food safety, nutrition, and sustainability.

On Tuesday, June 4, at 1:45 p.m., The Organic Center’s Director of Science Programs Jessica Shade will lead a session on Climate Action for a Secure Food System. Stakeholders with diverse food system experience will discuss how large-scale inter-disciplinary collaborations are needed. Included in the discussion will be cutting-edge innovations from the organic industry for climate mitigation and adaptation tools that can be applied across sectors. In addition, Gwendolyn Wyard, Vice President of Regulatory and Technical Affairs for the Organic Trade Association, will lead a session Wednesday, June 5, at 10:30 a.m. on Best Practices for Fraud Prevention in the Global Organic Supply Chain. This session will include a discussion of how the Organic Trade Association has addressed this issue by developing a fraud prevention program specifically for the organic industry. Discussed will be an overview of the organic fraud prevention program that organic companies may voluntarily enroll in along with perspectives and key takeaways from companies that participated in the organic fraud prevention pilot project. 

Meeting Information:

June 2-5, 2019

Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

New Orleans, LA