To our friends and colleagues in the organic community,

Quality Assurance International (QAI) remains committed to ensuring the integrity of the organic supply chain from farm to fork and ensuring consumer confidence in the USDA Organic seal. As a USDAaccredited certifying agent, QAI is required to certify products according to the NOP rules and regulations.

While our parent company, NSF International, is playing a limited role in facilitating public comment on the Rodale Institute’s proposed “Regenerative Organic Certified” protocol, QAI has not been involved in the development of this new certification program. QAI’s only participation will be to provide input as part of the public comments process currently underway.

As background, the “Regenerative Organic Certified” protocol was developed by Rodale with a coalition of stakeholders who are now seeking a broad review of the proposed certification program. The developers of the program contacted NSF International to facilitate the public comment process. NSF International chose to be involved in the process to help facilitate the gathering of public opinion, which will be provided to the coalition for consideration before they finalize the program. NSF is simply hosting the public comment platform to gather feedback on behalf of the coalition developing the protocol.

Again, QAI plans to provide input as part of the public comments process. We encourage all interested stakeholders to share their views on the proposed certification program and participate in the public comments process as well.

Sincerely,

Tracy Favre
Director, Certification Services
Quality Assurance International, Inc.