Organic Hop Association Believes USDA Sets Forth “Unreasonable Standard”

Hops were first added to the National List by the USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in June 2007, when organic hops were primarily produced in Europe and New Zealand. Since then, the U.S. organic hop industry has made significant advances. Progressive, large-scale family farms in the Pacific Northwest and small, local growers across the country are now growing organic hops, even though the hop producers believe the market for them has remained weak due to the current NOSB policy which allows brewers to use less expensive, non-organic hops in their beer labeled organic.

In an attempt to remove hops from the National List, the American Organic Hop Grower Association (AOHGA) submitted a petition to the USDA in December 2009, supported by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch, Lakefront Brewery, Seven Bridges Cooperative, and Hopunion LLC.

The NOSB’s response in their recent recommendation states, “On the basis of written and public comment in response to this petition to remove, organic hops were deemed not to be available in the form, quantity, or quality to currently justify removal from 205.606. To do so would negatively impact the organic brewing industry.” Instead, AOHGA believes that the recommendation will have a devastating impact on the organic hop industry.

The recommendation goes on to say, “A significant number of written and public comments at the Spring 2010 NOSB meeting contended that although some varieties of hops were available as organic, not all varieties are equal, and many varieties used for specific flavor profiles or beer types were not available.” In this case, AOHGA says, hops are being held to a higher standard than virtually any other agricultural product with respect to their use in an organic product. In the production of beer, not every variety of barley is available organically but organic brewers are required to use organic barley in a beer labeled “organic.”

The AOHGA believes the NOSB’s recommendation sets forth an unreasonable standard that will discourage present and future organic hop production. The committee provided no guidance to growers as to how many organic hop varieties are necessary before hops could be removed from the National List, nor have they named one type or style of beer that cannot be brewed with the organic hops that are commercially available in the market today. As long as a single organic brewer can cite the unavailability of a particular hop variety in the spot market as justification for hops continuing on the list, AOHGA states, hops will remain on the list indefinitely, and the U.S. organic hop industry will suffer.

Read the full story from AOHGA.