Oogie McGuire wrote:
>
> Where is this allowed? Seriously, we've been in meeting with the
> certifiers and the organic board folks and they say it is not
> allowed. The NOP rules specifically state what is and is not allowed
> for feeding livestock and DE is not mentioned as allowed so the rules
> here are that it is forbidden. This is the only reference to DE
> anywhere in the NOP as far as I can tell.
I called a major midwest NOP certifier here in the U.S. They were very much
aware of DE and indicated that not only do they allow the use of DE, they
promote it because they believe it should be used.
> The question concerned Ivermectin, and not other avermectin family
> drugs. Ivermectin is the only one that is possible to use in the NOP
> and it is not labeled for dairy cattle. Also by extrapolation it is
> not allowed for dairy sheep or goats.
It would be surprised if they allowed Ivomec Ivermectin and prohibited
Ivomec Eprinex. They are almost identical drugs working through very similar
pathways. Same thing with zero withholding Cydectin (Moxidectin). If they
did this, then I would consider it very inconsistent or inflexibly
bureaucratic unless they could come up with a good reason for such a
decision. If you are worried about residues why would you not want to
require the zero withholding drugs be used?
> You might be interested to compare the US NOP with the IFOAM and EU
> standards for Organic. We would qualify easily under those standards.
That's what it looks like to me as well. I used to have the impression that
we had to have such strict NOP standards in order to meet international
standards. I know that some of the NOP is much stricter than anything that
many certifiers had in place prior to the NOP.
Rick W.
