WSR 24-22-032
PERMANENT RULES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
[Filed October 28, 2024, 7:14 a.m., effective November 28, 2024]
Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing.
Purpose: This rule-making order amends chapter 16-157 WAC, Organic food standards and certification, by clarifying current rule language by replacing all gender-specific pronouns with modern gender-inclusive pronouns.
Citation of Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 16-157-030.
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 24-17-093 on August 19, 2024.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at the Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Date Adopted: October 25, 2024.
Derek I. Sandison
Director
OTS-5738.1
AMENDATORY SECTION(Amending WSR 19-01-062, filed 12/14/18, effective 1/14/19)
WAC 16-157-030Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
"Department" means the Washington state department of agriculture.
"Director" means the director of the department of agriculture or ((his or her))their duly authorized representative.
"Facility" includes, but is not limited to, any premises, plant, establishment, facility and associated appurtenances where organic products are prepared, handled, or processed in any manner for resale or distribution to retail outlets, restaurants, and any other such facility selling or distributing to consumers.
"Gross annual income" means the total monetary value received during the previous calendar year.
"Handler" means any person engaged in the business of handling agricultural products, including producers who handle crops or livestock of their own production.
"Handling operation" means any operation or portion of an operation that receives or otherwise acquires agricultural products and processes, packages, or stores such products.
"New applicant" means any person who applies for organic certification for the first time, or any person who has surrendered an organic certification or had an organic certification suspended or revoked.
"Person" means any individual, partnership, limited liability company, association, cooperative, or other entity.
"Processor" means any handler engaged in the canning, freezing, drying, dehydrating, cooking, pressing, powdering, packaging, baking, heating, mixing, grinding, churning, separating, extracting, cutting, fermenting, eviscerating, preserving, jarring, slaughtering or otherwise processing organic products.
"Producer" means a person who engages in the business of growing or producing food, fiber, feed, and other agricultural-based consumer products.
"Production operation" means a farm, ranch, or other business that grows, gathers, or raises crops, wild crops, or livestock.
"Renewal applicant" means any person that has received organic certification from the department in the previous year.
"Retailer" means any handler that sells organic food products directly to consumers.
"Sale" means selling, offering for sale, holding for sale, preparing for sale, trading, bartering, offering a gift as an inducement for sale of, and advertising for sale in any media.
"Site" means a contiguous defined field, orchard, block, pasture, paddock, garden, circle, plot or other designated area under the same management practices (e.g., organic, transitional).
"Transitional product" means any agricultural product that (a) is marketed using the term transitional in its labeling and advertising and (b) satisfies all of the requirements of organic except that it has had no applications of prohibited substances within one year prior to the harvest of the crop.