Developing Accepted Standards for Biochar

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Developing Accepted Standards for Biochar

• North American Biochar Conference
• Boulder, Colorado August 10, 2009
• Panelist Tracy Miedema
• Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc., Corvallis Oregon
• USDA National Organic Standards Board
• National Sustainable Agriculture Standards
  Committee

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Not all Standards are Created Equal

• Standards
• Generally contain prohibitions
• Generally mandate certain action
• May be private specifications or public law
• Enforcement may be self-regulated or
  independently verified

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Standards have Consequences

• May impose order and consistency through
  codification of materials and practices
• May set a long term direction for a field of
  research, social issue, or industry sector
• May be disruptive to the status quo
• May reinforce the status quo
• Scope matters and may influence outcomes

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The Process of Setting Standards

• Generally speaking...
• messy
• politicized
• slow
• Nevertheless important!

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What Sparks the Development of Standards

• Sometimes mandated by law
• Sometimes driven by industry
• Sometimes driven by shared aspirations and
  ideals
• seems to be what is sparking the discussion of
  biochar standards

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How Ideas Begin to Coalesce into Standards

• Commitment to a process collaboration and time
• Outcome driven
• Usually involves committee work
• Some form of broad-based validation

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Examples of Standards Development

• Case studies
• USDA Organic Standards
• 1990 OFPA
• 2002 Final Rule
• 2009 Regulation is still young and developing
• National Sustainable Agriculture Standards
• to date, 18 months into the process
• rocky start
• dust beginning to settle

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Developing Biochar Standards

• Now is a perfect time to begin discussing
  sustainable biochar production standards since
  this movement is showing a groundswell of energy
  and is pursuing clear, achievable, goals.
• Find Points of Consensus Interim, tacit
  agreements can be reached early and form a strong
  foundation

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Developing Biochar Standards

• Accepted standards are to be met (not necessarily
  exceeded) so assume your colleagues will toe the
  line,which is just fine.

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Developing Biochar Standards

• Ensure multi-stakeholder representation. This
  will need to be deliberate. An all-volunteer
  effort may not be sufficient (i.e. consider
  recruiting under-represented interests)

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Developing Biochar Standards

• Have commitment to the standards development
  processsince it will be most likely be a long
  one. Knock off the easy stuff first.and go
  process-heavy around points of disagreement.

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Developing Biochar Standards

• Let the standards setting process further, rather
  than hinder the biochar movement.

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Thank You!

• Panelist Tracy Miedema
• tracy_at_stahlbush.com
• Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc., Corvallis Oregon
• USDA National Organic Standards Board
• National Sustainable Agriculture Standards
  Committee