Free Garden Catalogs

Seeds - Oregon Tilth organic or USDA organic?

Planning to start an organic veggie garden, and wondering what the differences are between Oregon Tilth certified organic seeds, and USDA certified organic seeds? Any thoughts??

Public Comments

1. USDA has very low organic standards and I would not rely on them. Look with beef recall, they allowed all this meat on market. Not sure about the other one.
2. Hey Angel, If they are both certified as organic, they should be equivalent. Seed Certification is a particular prescribed procedure through which genetic identity, physical and physiological purity and seed health is maintained in seds and propagating materials of notified kinds and varieties. As a result, the certified seeds is of known pedigree, high varietal purity and good seedling value and confirm to the prescribed field as well as laboratory standards in respect of genetical and physical purity, germination, moisture percentage and seed health. Check out the CCOF site:
3. This is a great question! I know that Oregon Tilth requires all of the products in the process to be organic. I tried to find answers on the USDA site but being that it's a government site, it's not easy to navigate. Here are the links: http://www.tilth.org/index.html http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?navid=ORGANIC_CERTIFICATIO&parentnav=AGRICULTURE&navtype=RT You can email Oregon Tilth and ask them directly. I am sure you they will be able to give a great answer. Sorry I don't have a better answer! :)
4. The USDA makes the rules and organizations like Oregon tilth are the certifying agents-they are the ones that go out and do the on farm inspections and read through the applications and make sure that the farmer is following the USDA NOP rules. So there should be no difference between the two. Certified organic is certified organic in the USA and all certified farms must follow the same USDA rules no matter which certifying agency does the inspections.