Sustainability, smushstainability

There is a real turf battle going on over setting sustainability standards; this much is clear. Why do I say this? Of course, we have been waiting on a coalition of industry associations and NGOs to unveil their stewardship/sustainability index since PMA. I simply can't believe it takes this long to tweak a news release. Well, I received another news release from the Leonardo Academy the other day and here is their update, in full. Pay particular attention to the part about the Dec. 17 appeal hearing before the exec committee of the American National Standards Institute and the link that provides records of the correspondence between USDA, Leonardo and ANSI. From Leonardo Academy:

Standards Committee Task Force Kick-Off Teleconferences -- At its first meeting in September, the Standards Committee voted to form six Task Forces that will work to define the need for and vision of the SCS-001 process and to gather additional data and resources for guiding the standard development work ahead. After several weeks of planning and coordination, the Task Forces are now in a position to begin their work. The Task Force kick-off teleconferences will take place on Friday, December 12th and Monday, December 15th. A meeting schedule and agenda is available here. Because the Task Forces will be populated by the Standards Committee, these meetings are open to full participation by Standards Committee members only. Anyone interested in participating as an observer should contact amanda@leonardoacademy.org by Thursday, December 11th.

Update on Status of All Draft American National Standards for Trial Use (DSTUs) -- On October 2, 2008, ANSI announced that "Annex B: Draft American National Standards for trial use" of the ANSI Essential Requirements would be eliminated as an option for announcing standard development projects through ANSI. Furthermore, existing documents that are labeled or promoted as "Draft American National Standards for Trial Use" may no longer carry that label or be promoted as such. Deletion of Annex B does not preclude an ANSI- Accredited Standards Developer from developing, approving and disseminating its own standards for trial use, however. Any documents that were originally filed as "Draft American National Standards for Trial Use" no longer have recognized status through ANSI but can still be retained as draft standards for trial use within a standard developer's own system.

In keeping with the actions required by ANSI regarding the elimination of Annex B, Leonardo Academy has: 1) revised its standard development procedures to eliminate the DSTU option through ANSI (revised procedures are pending approval by ANSI), 2) removed all references to "Draft American National Standard for Trial Use" on existing DSTUs that have been announced as such and 3) filed a PINS to continue the development process for any document previously filed as a Draft American National Standard for Trial Use. In addition, Leonardo Academy will no longer refer to any standard under development as a "Draft American National Standard for Trial Use."

How does this affect SCS-001? -- The Standards Committee voted at its meeting in September to set aside the SCS-001 draft standard for consideration as one of many reference documents in the process to develop an American National Standard for Sustainable Agriculture Practice. Leonardo Academy further committed to filing a PINS to allow the SCS-001 standard development process to move forward. In keeping with this commitment and with the Annex B elimination requirements, Leonardo Academy filed a PINS for SCS-001 on November 11, 2008, and official notification was made in the November 28th issue of ANSI Standards Action. Furthermore, all references to "Draft American National Standard for Trial Use" on the SCS-001 Sustainable Agriculture Practice Draft Standard document have been removed. Click here to view the updated document. The standard development process for SCS-001 will continue to move forward as a candidate for an American National Standard through ANSI's PINs process.

ANSI Hearing Regarding USDA Appeal Scheduled for December 17th - On September 12, 2008, the US Department of Agriculture submitted an appeal to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) requesting that 1) ANSI withdraw Leonardo Academy's accreditation as a developer of American National Standards and that 2) the Draft Standard for Trial Use titled Sustainable Agriculture Practice Standard for Food, Fiber and Biofuel Crop Producers and Agricultural Product Handlers and Processors (SCS-001) be withdraw from further consideration as a DSTU or as the basis for an American National Standard. Our response to the appeal was submitted to ANSI on October 3rd. Copies of the USDA's appeal and Leonardo Academy's response, as well as the formal correspondence between the USDA and Leonardo, can be found at the Leonardo Academy website: http://www.leonardoacade my.org/Projects/SustainAgStdDevelopment.htm.

Leonardo Academy believes that the appeals process is an important part of the ANSI standard development process as it allows affected parties to voice areas of concern with a particular standard under development. The appeals process also allows the standard developer to learn how it can improve its process for developing standards. Leonardo Academy has worked hard to follow all of the requirements of the ANSI Essential Requirements and the ANSI- approved Leonardo Academy Standards Development Constitution throughout our engagement in the SCS-001 standard development process, and thus we are taking the USDA's appeal very seriously. The hearing at which the ANSI Executive Standards Council (ExSC) will address the appeal is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, December 17th. We will keep you informed of our engagements with ANSI and the USDA in the effort to resolve this issue.

TK: My bet is we won't see or hear anything about the fledgling stewardship/sustainability index until after Dec. 17. If the Leonardo Academy is out of the picture after Dec. 17, then a new, more tightly focused standard setting process may begin....