Dear Aggy — Material Review continued from page 15
So, to find out if a material is approved for use in organic production you may need to check in a few places. First, check PCO’s Annual Approved Materials List and check all of our Add/Drop Lists from the current year. In past years, PCO has published one Add/Drop list per year in July, but this year we intend to publish three — one in April, one in July, and one in October. If the material you want to use isn’t on these lists, check the OMRI, WSDA, and CDFA lists. You can request a paper copy of these lists from PCO if you are unable to access their websites. If you don’t see the material on any of these lists, you can submit the product for a PCO compliance review. After the original compliance review, materials will generally stay on the list for three years. Updated reviews will be performed only when we encounter continued use of these materials — so if no one is using a material, it will be dropped from our list after three years. Submitting Products for PCO Compliance Review If you have a product that you’re interested in using, feel free to call PCO and speak to your Certification Specialist or someone on the Materials Review Team. If you have internet access, you can directly and easily request a materials review through the website at paorganic.org/materialsreview. You can even directly upload labels as part of the on-line review request.
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Organic Matters
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Spring 2017
Remember, when submitting a product for review, the following information really makes things go a LOT FASTER: • What do you want to use it for? • Do you need to use it right away, or is this something you’d like to try out later in the season? • What is the correct product name? • Who is the manufacturer listed on the label? • Contact information for manufacturer. • Ideally — We love to get a copy of the label. — Aggy
Got a question for Aggy? • Email to: pco@paorganic.org • Fax to: 814-422-0255
www.paorganic.org