Mandatory Reassessment Required When 'Eco-Friendly Certification' Is Revoked Due to Pesticide Drift Caused by Wind

Enforcement Rules of the "Eco-friendly Agriculture and Fisheries Act" Revised and Implemented

If a farm's organic certification is canceled due to pesticides sprayed on conventional farmland drifting by wind into eco-friendly farmland, the farm's request for a reexamination must now be conducted mandatorily. This is intended to expand farmers' opportunities for prior relief.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 9th that it will revise and implement the "Enforcement Rules of the Act on the Promotion of Eco-friendly Agriculture and Fisheries and the Management and Support of Organic Food, etc." on the 10th to include this provision.

With the recent increase in aerial pesticide spraying using drones, concerns over certification cancellations due to unintentional contamination?such as pesticides sprayed on nearby conventional farmland drifting by wind into eco-friendly farmland?are growing.

Currently, under the Eco-friendly Agriculture and Fisheries Act, farmers can request a reexamination of certification results. However, since there are no specific requirements in the enforcement rules, certification bodies decide whether to conduct a reexamination at their discretion.

Accordingly, the revised rules require certification bodies to accept farmers' reexamination requests if ▲ the farmer submits evidence proving unintentional pesticide contamination caused by wind drift, ▲ the certification body acknowledges an error in the examination, or ▲ the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service confirms an error in the examination.

Administrative sanction standards for distribution, sales, and pesticide-free raw material processed food companies using eco-friendly agricultural and livestock products as raw materials will also be adjusted. Currently, if synthetic pesticide components are detected in certified products due to causes during production or if veterinary drug components exceed one-tenth of the permissible limit, corrective measures are taken up to the second violation, and certification is canceled upon the third violation. This will be relaxed to corrective measures regardless of the number of violations. However, if the violation is due to intentional or negligent handling, certification will be canceled upon the first violation as before.

Additionally, pesticide-free raw material processed foods will be allowed to use up to 5% of general raw materials, similar to organic processed foods. Until now, the use of general raw materials was prohibited in pesticide-free raw material processed foods, making it impossible to manufacture processed foods if certified raw materials were unavailable. For example, in kimchi production, even salted seafood had to use pesticide-free raw materials. Going forward, up to 5% of general raw materials can be used.

Yoon Won-seup, Director of Agricultural Food Innovation Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "Through this revision of the enforcement rules of the Eco-friendly Agriculture and Fisheries Act, we hope that farmers can sustainably continue eco-friendly agriculture with stability, and that the processed food industry using eco-friendly agricultural and livestock products as raw materials will be further revitalized."

(Photo) [Image source=Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.