Alternative certifications to USDA Organic have flourished in the last two decades.  Fastmarkets has covered this routinely as the USDA continues with its broad efforts to expand organic regulations and increase the integrity of organic markets. 

The Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards (OLPS) are an example of this. Long overdue, various organizations stepped in to certify farms’ humane rearing and handling practices in the absence of such standards in organic markets. Local food markets, especially animal protein markets, often sidestepped organic certification altogether but sought animal welfare ones to reflect their husbandry practices, add a new marketing dimension, or both. 

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