chemistry

National Organic Standards Board

National Organic Standards Board is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Organic Standards Board rather than just read about it. In short: The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is an advisory board that makes recommendations to the United States Secretary of Agriculture on organic food and products. Members are appointed by the Secretary and these make recommendations, one of the most important of which is to review and develop the National List of Approved and Prohibited Substances.

Key takeaways

National Organic Standards Board belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National Organic Standards Board to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Organic Standards Board from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is an advisory board that makes recommendations to the United States Secretary of Agriculture on organic food and products. Members are appointed by the Secretary and these make recommendations, one of the most important of which is to review and develop the National List of Approved and Prohibited Substances.

Members In accordance with the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 within the 1990 Farm Bill, the United States Secretary of Agriculture set up a 15-member board to make recommendations on policies regulating the production and distribution of organic food and products. Currently, the members serving on the National Organic Standards Board include: employees from four organic farms; employees of six environmental and chemical activist groups; two employees from organic food processors; one organic store owner; one ecologist; and one employee from an organic certification company. Subcommittees include: Crops; Livestock; Handling; Compliance, Accreditation, and Certification; and Policy Development. Members can serve on multiple committees at the same time and the full chart of assignments can be found at USDA National Organic Program website. The first members of the board were appointed by USDA Secretary Edward Madigan in January 1992. Board members serve five year terms. Past members include Campbell Soup Company executive and organic expert Mr. Steven DeMuri.

Duties of the Board The duties of the NOSB board members are outlined in the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA). They relate to the general responsibility the Board has in order to ensure regulations are enforced in the organic farming community as well as specific aids that the Board swears to provide in case of an agricultural emergency. The Board is trusted to provide the Secretary of Agriculture with legitimate recommendations which implement the policies outlined in the OFPA. One of their most important duties is the review and development of the National List of Approved and Prohibited Substances. Before the official National List is recognized, the Board must have the knowledge of any and all “botanical pesticides” utilized and decide whether they should be included on the list of prohibited substances. Members advise the Secretary, but are not responsible for overseeing the testing of “organically produced agricultural products”, which could lead to “unavoidable” environmental contamination or health hazards. Their last duty is concerned with allowing exemptions to regulations in the case of an outbreak of harmful pest or disease that might qualify as an agricultural emergency and require more extreme pesticide use or disease control.

Recommendation Procedure Extensive research is done on every case and that outside knowledge is often sought in order to ensure the most comprehensive management scheme is created. General standards the Board must adhere to when reviewing policies are listed below:

“USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) definition, April 1995 “Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony. “‘Organic’ is a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act. The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole. “Organic agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water. “Organic food handlers, processors and retailers adhere to standards that maintain the integrity of organic agricultural products. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.”

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Organic Standards Board

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Organic Standards Board claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Organic Standards Board before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Organic Standards Board ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Organic Standards Board

In research: National Organic Standards Board appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Organic Standards Board in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Organic Standards Board is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Agricultural organizations based in the United States, Organic farming in the United States, Organic farming organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Organic Standards Board outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study National Organic Standards Board in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Organic Standards Board means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National Organic Standards Board out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National Organic Standards Board in simple terms?

Why does National Organic Standards Board matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Organic Standards Board?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Organic Standards Board.