1.1 Conversion period for land associated with organic livestock and plant production

Cross references:

USDA NOP: § 205.202 Land requirements.
NZFSA Technical Rules for Organic Production:
Section 4, point 4.1
Section 5, point 5.1
Section 6, point 6.2

Any field or farm parcel from which harvested crops are intended to be sold, labelled, or represented as "organic," must:
(a) Have been managed in accordance with the provisions of Sections 4 and 5 and 6 of NZFSA Technical Rules;
(b) Have had no prohibited substances applied to it for a period of 3 years immediately preceding harvest of the crop; and
(c) Have distinct, defined boundaries and buffer zones such as runoff diversions to prevent the unintended application of a prohibited substance to the crop or contact with a prohibited substance applied to adjoining land that is not under organic management.

Interpretative note

Extracted from the Frequently Asked Question answer on Buffer Zones: [Source AMS website www.ams.usda.gov/nop/]
The US national standards do not specify specific dimensions for buffer zones, but leaves the determination of their size to the organic producer and the certifying agent on a case-by-case basis.

In the US it has always been the responsibility of organic operations to manage potential contact of organic products with other substances not approved for use in organic production systems. The organic system plan must outline steps that an organic operation will take to avoid drift from neighboring operations, particularly drift of synthetic chemical pesticides.

While the US national organic standards provide significant discretion in establishing buffer zone dimensions, buffer zones should not be sized at distances, which attempt to achieve a zero tolerance for prohibited substances. The intent of the regulations in the US are to foster a collaborative effort between the certifying agents and their grower clients to determine an appropriate buffer zone with each party being fully cognisant of the process-based nature of the organic label claim.