Sustainable Agriculture Standards Committee holds 3rd meeting

The Sustainable Agriculture Standards Committee held its third face-to-face meeting June 14-15 at the Univ. of Arkansas-Fayetteville. The committee continues to work on developing an American National Standard for Sustainable Agriculture.

Committee members discussed and approved guiding sustainability principles developed by the Economic, Social, and Environmental Criteria Subcommittees. Principles related to farm management and planning; labor rights; biodiversity; water, soil and air pollution; soil health, fertility, and productivity; farm inputs and outputs; and greenhouse gases will now move forward as the basis for criteria, indicators and metrics. Committee members approved structure and process documents designed to facilitate standards development. The committee also approved a timeline to facilitate the completion of the standard by the fall of 2012.

Leonardo Academy, the ANSI-accredited standards developer facilitating the standard process, reported that Scientific Certification Systems, which initiated the standard discussion and has provided financial support, has no claim on copyright of the final product.