Anyone living in the United States should at least recognize the USDA logo when they see it. The USDA logo can be found on a variety of products such as Justin’s peanut butter cups (my favorite), Kettle Chips, and Dr. Brews Kombucha. In order for products like these to be certified organic by the USDA they must follow all USDA regulations  (beginning on page 4), be in compliance with the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List), and must be overseen by a USDA certifying agent (who producers get to choose). Even though some producers may pay several thousand dollars to be certified organic, the benefits to being certified are superb. Being certified, producers get to be apart of a growing market, they are reimbursed up to 75% for their inspection and certification fees, and they qualify for the USDA Certification Cost-Share Program. Unlike the USDA organic website, where finding certification benefits was easy, it was much more difficult to find this information on the European Union Commission website for organic farming. But producers in the EU are given a certain amount of support depending on their member state. It is my understanding that this support is sometimes marketing help, but in 2014 the EU launched its new Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) that over the course of six years will transition to greener policies that encourage organic farming. Some of these policies include a 30% direct payment to farmers that have environmentally friendly farming practices with at least 30% of the rural development programs' budget to also be used for supporting organic farming. While it seems that the EU is making significant strides, it is difficult to discern how much of that aid is in effect currently and whether these policies will  be more benefiting to larger farms over smaller operations.



Equally important to producer benefits are the label standards producers must abide by.  From my research I found that there are three label categories: 100% organic, organic, and “made with organic” which are multi-ingredient products. The USDA standards require that for all categories there must be listed the certified organic ingredients in the information panel as well as provide the name of the certifying agent. The major requirement in the 100% organic category that isn’t required in the others is that all processing aids must be organic.  For substances that are allowed in the “organic” category they must be less than 5% since the USDA standards require products to be at least 95% organic. In the “made with organic” category, these products must be at least 70% certified organic, but therefore cannot have USDA logo anywhere on the label. Since there is no national certifying agent for Spain, products are instead certified by both private,  public, and semi public control bodies that must implement EU policies. For the EU organic logo,  products must be at least 95% certified organic, like the USDA, but unlike the USDA the EU requires the control body number and the area with which the product was farmed to be placed next to the EU logo. Other than these specifications, the EU didn’t list any other label categories (that I could find) and neglected to state whether or not they have any exceptions to these requirements like the USDA which states that organic farmers who sell less than $5,000 are exempt from some of these standards.



As a consumer, I am deeply reassured that the organic products I purchase are indeed strictly managed and regulated. While researching the standards for organic farming I found that these standards were divided into three major categories : crop, livestock, and handling. When gathering this information it was clear that the USDA has more specific standards and exceptions than the EU and that this information is also much easier to find. Rather than compare these standards in a lengthy paragraph, I thought it easiest to compare them in a table: