2.6 State Organic Programs and International Agreements

Jenna Bjork and Katie Steneroden

State Programs

State Organic Programs allow a state to oversee organic production, handling, and enforcement of the USDA organic regulations within the state. Once approved by the NOP, State Organic programs may add more restrictive requirements than the federal guidelines allow based on environmental conditions or a need for specialized production and handling practices in that state. Currently, only California has a State Organic Program.

Fifteen states currently are accredited by the USDA to act as ACAs. They can certify farmers and handlers that operate in their state.

Visit the following websites for more information on organic farm requirements in California:

International agreements

Products that originate outside of the United States can be sold in the United States as certified organic if the country of origin has a trade agreement with the United States. The NOP works to establish international trade arrangements so that both countries recognize each other’s organic regulations as being equivalent. The United States currently has organic equivalency arrangements with several countries, allowing exportation to seven countries and importation from 11 countries (see map below). The USDA’s Joint Organic Compliance Committee was created to strengthen the monitoring and enforcement of organic products traded between the United States and Mexico. This committee is working towards an organic equivalency arrangement with Mexico’s certifiers on policy guidance and training.

A map of the earth with certain countries shaded in green. The US is the darkest color, followed by Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico, and India.
As of March 2025, the world map shows countries in the United States (dark green) that allow exporting and importing organic products (medium green): Canada, the European Union, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Four other countries (light green) allow exportation from the US but not importation of organic products into the US: India, Israel, Mexico, and New Zealand.

Additional resources regarding enforcement activities of the NOP include these USDA websites:

A set of icons representing different organic groups.

License

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Organic and Alternative Livestock Health Copyright © 2026 by Katie Steneroden; Jenna Bjork; and Delaine Quaresma is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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