WASHINGTON, D.C. — The USDA denied claims by a nonprofit Wisconsin group that one of its organic program administrators was the subject of an ethics probe.
The USDA further called accusations against him "an attempt to damage his creditability" as an enforcer against those who falsely marketed organic farm products as the real deal.
"The focus on any one public servant in an attempt to damage his or her credibility is inappropriate and without merit," a USDA spokesperson informed Farm World following an inquiry on an Oct. 16 report that claimed Miles McEvoy, deputy administrator for the agency’s National Organic Program was under investigation on orders from the USDA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
"There is no investigation of the National Organic Program or its staff happening by (the) USDA’s Inspector General – that is inaccurate," the spokesman said.
The accusations against McEvoy and his department were made by The Cornucopia Institute, an organization its website claims is "promoting economic justice for family-scale farming." The group accused McEvoy of "failing to enforce organic standards or giving favorable treatment to corporate agribusiness interests."
The National Organic Program (NOP) is a regulatory program responsible for protecting organic products from the farm to the market. Under McEvoy, the division has cracked down on dozens of violators who falsely marketed farm products as organic, resulting in stiff civil penalties in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. The NOP is one of several programs within the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
Cornucopia claimed "the USDA was looking into McEvoy’s activities in carrying out his responsibility to administer the USDA’s responsibility to oversee the activity of the nation’s independent organic certifiers, working as agents on behalf of the USDA."
The title of Cornucopia’s news release report was Leader of USDA Organic Program Subject of Ethics Investigation.
"USDA takes any complaints regarding our operations seriously," the USDA spokesperson said, "and that is why AMS looks into any formal complaints used by outside groups. This was the case when Cornucopia Institute filed a complaint earlier this year.
"AMS launched a thorough review and ultimately found and determined that the (NOP) operations were in compliance and there was not sufficient evidence to conduct additional investigations."
The USDA representative added, "USDA values and has faith in Deputy Administrator Miles McEvoy’s leadership of the National Organic Program."
McEvoy was appointed to the post in 2009 and has worked in organic farming for more than 25-years. In 1988, he was Washington state’s first organic inspector for the Department of Agriculture. Prior to joining the government, he worked for 10 years on farms, in wild-capture fisheries and in reforestation.
The USDA reports that the retail market for organic products is now valued at more than $39 billion while USDA organic operations have grown more than 250 percent since 2002.
