The Retail and Consumer section should contain information like:

• Nutritional education
• Public information / awareness
• School food policies
• Restaurant purchasing

The Organic Foods Production Act was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy in the 1990 Farm Bill and Organic Restoration Act, to counteract the rider that would have made certain standards less enforceable by the USDA. This made way for the USDA Organic Labeling and Certification program.

This program supports U.S. organic farmers because it increases the visibility of organic food and hopefully by extension communicates the benefits of this food, which thus increases market demand. Furthermore, the organic label adds value to the product (at least among a certain set of consumers.) Producers of less than $5000 per year do not need to be certified. The cost of becoming certified could be a barrier for some producers, but Senator Leahy also has a program to mitigate those costs. The fee-schedule is based on the gross sales of the operation. There is currently a federal program which will reimburse 75% of any certification feed paid by farmers and processors.

The USDA organic label comes into play during the purchase of the product, however, in order to become organic certain measures need to be taken during the growing and production of the product.

Organic food is the fastest growing segment of American Agriculture. NOFA has over 1000 members in VT.

This program address the problem of consumers knowing if their food is truly organic or not. Packaging can indicate something is 'organic' but these standards back up the label so that consumers know what they are paying for.

The benefit for consumers is security in the knowledge that what they are purchasing is truly organic. There is also security for food producers in terms of securing their ability to benefit from the consumer demand for organic products without being threatened by false claims from competitors.

Press release on the USDA Organic labeling program.

Under fair trade systems, importers and farmers must become certified through a fair trade certification organization such as FLO-CERT. Fair trade organizes farmers all over the world into unions and organizations that allow farmers to conduct business with companies willing to pay a livable wage for their produce, creating better working and living standards, and protect them from labor exploitation. In addition, fair trade business enables long-term partnerships between farmer and importer and investments in social and economic developments for local farmers.

Overall, fair trade is largely beneficial to practicing farmers, particularly to farmers in developing nations. Fair trade increases the farmers financial security and independence and promotes future development. While extremely beneficial in many ways, there are some short falls of fair trade that should be addressed. For one thing, the cost of becoming certified is approximately $660 hundred USD and many poor farmers will not have the resources to become certified. Also, fair trade ignores family farms as farmers must join a cooperative or union in order to be eligible for the certification. In addition, fair trade certifications and labels do not make a distinction between companies that engage in fair trade on a very minute level as opposed to companies that practice 100 percent fair trade. This is called "Green or Social Washing". Consumers may not be able to tell the difference between companies that say their goods are "fairly traded" vs those companies who are certified in fair trade. The former may not adhere to the same policies. For small farmers, this could mean not wanting to be a part of a fair trade agreement but rather have their purchases public information. Lastly, fair trade can fall short in accounting for wage disparities between nations and regions so farmers may in actuality still be earning less than the national or regional average. Despite these pitfalls, fair trade is a great system for poor farmers.

Localvores (as opposed to omnivores, herbivores and carnivores) are consumers who eat only or mainly locally produced/grown foods. Product certification has become important, and documentaries continue to inform the broader public.

Burlington School Food Project Report