GreeniacsArticles
Food and Beverage
USDA Certified Organic
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Written by greeniac19850
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| Wednesday, 16 April 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
USDA Certified Organic The National Organic Program (NOP) is an extension of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) created to accredit local organic certifying
agencies. The NOP accredits a total of
95 certifying agencies across the globe, 55 of which are located in the In order for an agricultural product to be certified organic, farmers must comply with the regulations set forth by their local certifying agency. Because the NOP accredits all local certifying agencies, the regulations that must be met to obtain organic certification from a local certifier are uniform and an extension of the regulations set forth by the NOP and the USDA. The NOP accredits both government and private certifying agencies. In some states, such as Regardless of whether or not the accredited certification agency is a government or private institution, all certification agencies must meet the same standards set forth by the NOP to become accredited certifying agencies. This results in organic standards that are uniform throughout the United States and abroad, where there are foreign NOP accredited certifying agencies The organic standards set forth by the NOP, and in turn enforced by local certifying agencies, are determined by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), a panel of individuals that set forth agricultural organic standards. According to the NOP website, the current NOSB consists of, “four farmers/growers, two handlers/processors, one retailer, one scientist, three consumer/public interest advocates, three environmentalists, and one USDA accredited certifying agent who sit on various committees.” The representatives of the NOSB come from all four regions of the The standards set forth by the NOSB for organic approval generally relate to which chemicals are used during the farming process. Chemicals that are known to cause harm to the environment, such as certain pesticides or insecticides, are prohibited. Any chemical that affects an organism’s physiology, such as hormones or genetic modifiers, is also prohibited. There is an ongoing list of petitioned chemicals to make sure that the NOSB’s list of prohibited and permitted chemicals remains consistent with the most current scientific research. If you have any further questions regarding organic certification standards, you may contact your local accredited certifying agency from the list below.
note: all contact information for these National Organic Program (NOP) accredited certifying agencies is taken from the NOP website.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 February 2011 ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
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77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.
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Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.
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Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months
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The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.
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In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.
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Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.
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You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.
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Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.
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American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.
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One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
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Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.
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You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.
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A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.
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It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.
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Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.


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