§6515 Requirements of Certifying Agents

Summary

To become or stay an accredited certifying agent, a state official or person must be able to run the organic certification program fully. The agent must hire enough inspectors as the Secretary requires. Every agent must sign an agreement with the Secretary to follow the chapter and any other terms the Secretary sets. Private agents must also agree that the Secretary is not responsible if the agent fails to follow the rules and must provide reasonable financial security in an amount set by the Secretary to protect program participants. Agents must follow the program rules, keep client business information confidential (except as allowed by section 6506(a)(9) or to the Secretary or the state official), and avoid conflicts: they cannot inspect operations where they or their employees have business ties, accept gifts or payments other than set fees, or sell paid advice about organic practices outside program fees. A private agent must name the person who runs its daily operations. If the Secretary or the state official finds an agent or one of its offices is not following the rules, they may suspend the agent’s accreditation or stop that office’s operations, including offices in foreign countries or U.S. offices acting for foreign entities. The Secretary must provide a way for a suspended office to resume work and must quickly decide whether farms or handlers certified by a suspended agent can keep their organic certification. An accredited agent must tell the Secretary within 90 days after opening any new certifying office that does certification work.