The Canadian General Standards Board has banned nanotechnology in organic food production. An amendment was added to Canada’s national organic rules banning nanotechnology as a “Prohibited Substance or Method.” The section lists substances or techniques that are prohibited in organic food production, including genetic engineering, synthetic pesticides, irradiation, and cloned animals.
According to Dag Falck, organic program manager at Nature’s Path Foods, reasons for the ban on nanotechnology are that consumers are very concerned about the technology, that it is incompatible with organic principles, and that safety aspects of the technology are unknown.
The Materials Handling Committee of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in the United States planned last fall to recommend that nanotechnology be banned from organic food production, but in February the committee published a “request for information for developing a usable definition of the term (nanotechnology) in organics.” The document says “a difficulty in developing a definition for the term ‘nanotechnology’ has prevented the committee from completing a final recommendation on this important issue.” The committee has requested a technical and scientific review of the issue to aid the committee with clearly identifying the term “nanotechnology.”
Banning nanotechnology in organic production presents challenges because it is already being used in some organic products. Nano Green Sciences, Inc. sells a nano-pesticide that they claim is “organic.” Other natural pesticides, such as pyrethrin and copper, could contain nanoparticles and nanosilver could be used to clean vegetables of bacteria. Some personal care products promoted as organic already contain nanoparticles.
Canada joins several other countries that have either banned or proposed a ban on nanotechnology in organic. The Organic Crop Improvement Association based in the United States has added a clause in their organic standard to regulate the use of nanotechnology.
Organic & Non-GMO Report, Volume 10, Issue 5, May 2010
http://www.non-gmoreport.com/ArchivesTwo/org&nongmo_may10.pdf
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