Organic Hops Update
It's been almost a month since we first learned about the NOSB Handling Committee's recommendation to continue allowing organic brewers to use non-organic hops. The blog post that I wrote in response has now been viewed over 4,800 times. That number is completely amazing to me and I thank everyone who has taken the time to read the post, the American Organic Hop Grower Association's press release, and the petition. Because of the response from consumers, organic hop growers, and organic brewers, the NOSB Handling Committee has revised their previous recommendation and is now recommending that hops come off the National List on January 1, 2013. The response from everyone over the last month made a great impact on the Committee as they quoted the original blog post in their revised recommendation. Thanks to everyone who passed it along. This is truly a word-of-mouth campaign that seems to be working, but don't give up. It's a great development in our fight for a future for organic hops, but the fight is not over yet. The full NOSB board will vote on our petition at the end of the month and there is no guarantee that they will agree with this latest recommendation. In the meantime, I applaud the Handling Committee for their reconsideration of the issue and look forward to the meeting in Madison later this month.
When I get more information, I'll update the blog and keep everyone in the loop. Until then, thanks to everyone who submitted comments in support of removing hops from the 205.606 List, including: Peak Organic Brewing, Washington State University, Blackfoot River Brewing, the Michigan Hop Alliance, Michigan State University, University of Vermont, 7 Bridges Organic Brewery, Wolaver's Organic Brewing, Otter Creek Brewing, University of Colorado, Lakefront Brewery, the Cornucopia Institute, and countless citizens, hop growers, and others. Thank you all. All comments can be found at the regulations.gov website or via this link.
I've attached our farm's comments, the AOHGA's comments, and the updated NOSB Handling Committee recommendation to this post if anyone is interested in reading any of it.
Thanks again!
Patrick Smith
