OT Kinda - SlowFoodDC Digest, Vol 2, Issue 178 - New Organic Analysis

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Folks,

 

FYI, This is from my Slow Food list, something I have been suspect of

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Kathy

 

http://www.LegacyManorFarm.com

" The

way food used to taste "

 

 

 

Message: 2

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:02:11 -0400

content maven <contentmaven

[slowFoodDC] Analysis: USDA does not always enforce organic

label standards

DC ListServe ListServe <slowfooddc

 

Posted on Tue, Jul. 25, 2006

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Analysis: USDA does not always enforce organic label standards

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By Paula Lavigne

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The Dallas

Morning News

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(MCT)

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DALLAS

- More and more shoppers are forking out extra money for organic

foods to avoid chemicals, eat healthy and to support the environment.

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But the USDA Organic label, stamped on everything from chocolate chip

cookies to milk to mangos, may not be a mark the public always can

trust.

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Organic food is supposed to be free of most chemical pest killers,

fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, and genetic engineering. Organic

farmers and ranchers must enrich the soil and be kind to animals;

chickens should strut outside and cows should regularly graze.

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But a Dallas Morning News investigation has found that the United

States Department of Agriculture does not know how often organic rules

are broken and has not consistently taken action when potential

violations were pointed out.

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" The USDA has failed to enforce the regulations, " said Jim

Riddle,

former chairman of the National Organics Standards Board and an

appointed adviser to the USDA when the organic standards were enacted

in 2002. " There have been no prosecutions of violations for the

organic

law yet. ... They've failed to take action. "

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Though a small slice of the overall food market, organics is growing at

 

16 percent a year, while overall food sales are rising only 3 percent.

They are forecast to continue that pace as big grocers, most recently

Wal-Mart, expand their organic offerings.

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Barbara Robinson, the USDA executive who oversees the National Organic

Program, said her small staff struggles to keep up with the booming

industry.

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" When you have eight or nine people and everybody wants something,

you

try to do a little bit of everything. "

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She said the label is as good as the people who are growing and

monitoring the products.

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" I don't think there are any absolutes in the world anywhere. I

think

that's kind of a ridiculous question, " she said.

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Robinson acknowledged that the agency hasn't fined anyone for misuse of

 

the label, but she said certain products have been ordered to yank it.

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Retailers say the label is their cue that products are authentic.

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" If you buy an organic product at Wal-Mart, you can trust that it

is

USDA-certified. But I would not be able to speak to whether those are

the right standards or the wrong standards. We are retailers; we are

not agronomists or scientists, " said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Gail

Lavielle.

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The organic program monitors at least 20,000 organic growers, ranchers,

 

processing plants and others worldwide.

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Texas

looms large in organics with more organic land than any other

state. It is also home of one the nation's biggest organic companies,

Dean Foods in Dallas,

which distributes Horizon Organic dairy products

and Silk soymilk. Whole Foods of Austin is the largest organic retail

chain. Representatives from both companies say they take measures to

make sure their products are organic.

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USDA officials say the organics label is a selling point rather than a

mark of nutrition. The dietary benefit of organics is the subject of

dueling debate. However, shoppers often view organic food as an

investment in their health.

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About 66 percent of U.S.

consumers buy organic products occasionally,

according to a 2004 survey by the Hartman Group, a consumer research

company. Almost half said they bought organic for their health and

nutrition.

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Those surveyed said having children was the most significant reason to

go organic, and that's exactly what prompted 28-year-old Megan Stewart

of The Colony, Texas.

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Her 1-year-old daughter was recently strapped into a shopping cart

filled with organic baby food in an aisle at Whole Foods in Plano,

Texas.

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" I only get the USDA-certified, rather than just packages that say

 

all-natural or organic, " Stewart said. " They are really under

tight

regulations. "

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But the Dallas Morning News found the following reasons that organic

shoppers may not be buying what they think:

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_A review of 216 internal USDA audits shows several examples of

violations at organic farms and production plants. However, reports

about problems that are supposed to filter up to the agency from

on-the-ground monitors are incomplete.

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_Much organic food is produced overseas where there is even less

oversight. Inspectors in China, for example, describe

obvious

violations that are not well-tracked or known by the agency.

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_Vague rules leave much to interpretation, especially when it comes to

treatment of animals.

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Organics is full of true believers, farmers and food processors who go

above and beyond what they're required to do. But they worry about

organic scofflaws making a bad name for the whole industry.

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" There's definitely people who don't follow the rules, " said

Conner

Updike, who grows organic beans and squash in central Florida. He uses

chicken manure to fertilize his crops, but he has heard that some

people cut corners and use ammonium nitrate - a banned fertilizer -

that costs half as much and is hard to detect.

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" It's not fair to me, " he said. " I'm trying to obey all

the rules and

then someone else cheats. "

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The Washington State Department of Agriculture, for example, discovered

 

a fruit farmer who applied banned chemicals to his orchard and a mint

grower selling regular mint under the organic label.

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A Canadian certifier cried foul when inspectors found chickens at a

Manitoba

poultry producer that had no access to the outdoors, as

required in organic laws.

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Among 268 complaints released by the USDA, about 50 were products

erroneously claiming to be organic or falsely using the label. The USDA

 

ordered them to stop.

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Problems continue to crop up, but there's no way for the public to know

 

how many cheaters there are.

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The Dallas Morning News requested in April records of all violations

regarding individual farms, ranches and handlers. USDA officials said

they could not provide the documents for at least six months.

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Officials said it would take that long to collect and organize the

information, though organic program rules mandate the USDA make

violation information available to the public on the program's Web

site. But after four years, Robinson said her staff hasn't had time to

make that happen.

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The USDA does not know how many violations there are because it is

missing information from those who are supposed to police the industry

at the ground level.

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The agency collects information from 56 certifiers in the United

States and 40 in foreign countries, usually state-run agencies or

private companies. Farms and processing plants can choose any

USDA-approved certifier.

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A banana from Ecuador

or rice from southeast Texas

can carry the USDA

label only if a certifier has given approval. Certifiers hire

inspectors to walk through fields, interview plant workers and comb

through records. The certifiers are then supposed to notify the USDA

when there are problems.

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However, The Dallas Morning News reviewed hundreds of audits of

certifiers that show many violations. Yet the USDA has never yanked or

suspended a certifier's accreditation, despite auditors'

recommendations to do so.

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Auditors, from a separate USDA branch, wrote that certifiers approved

food producers despite evidence that banned chemicals were used. Some

gave approval without conducting inspections. USDA officials would not

discuss the individual audits. It's unclear whether officials addressed

 

problems auditors pointed out. But several audits note the same

problems with the same certifiers year after year.

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Inspectors, organic farmers and certifiers themselves say they know

some cut corners.

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Sam Welsch, owner of OneCert, a certification agency in Lincoln, Neb.,

 

said some companies hire the cheapest inspectors, not the most

qualified.

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" Even if one organization is doing a bad job, and a fraud issue

would

come up, that's bad for the whole industry, " he said.

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Big companies, such as Dean Foods, say they protect their consumers by

going with reliable, trusted certifiers.

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" A lot of certification agencies have been doing this for decades.

I

see a lot of integrity in the certifiers and think they really have

been working hand-in-hand with the USDA, " said Kelly Shea, vice

president of organic stewardship for WhiteWave Foods, a Dean Foods

subsidiary.

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Shea said the industry would benefit if the USDA spent more money on

enforcement.

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Whole Foods took another route to assure customers, and is a certified

organic retailer. This special status requires the chain to make sure

labeled products have documents to back them up. Whole Foods also

tracks food back to its producers, said Joe Dickson, organic programs

coordinator for the company.

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About 40 percent of organic farms and handlers are in foreign

countries, including 300 farms and processing plants in China.

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Wal-Mart used some Chinese organic soybeans in its private label

soymilk. They've also been in Silk, the popular soymilk brand from

WhiteWave.

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The United States

has 2.2 million organic acres; China

has 8.6 million.

Almost 90 percent was certified in 2004, which raises a red flag with

Riddle, who said it's questionable that China could have transitioned

farmland that quickly.

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China

has a history of dousing fields with chemicals.

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Fred Gale, a senior USDA economist who has researched Chinese

agriculture, said it was " almost impossible to grow truly organic

food

in China.

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" The water everywhere is polluted, and the soil is contaminated

from

industry and mining, and the air is bad. "

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Despite concerns about China,

Robinson said the USDA only is

responsible for approving the certifiers and it is their job to check

on Chinese farms or handlers.

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The Organic Crop Improvement Association, a certifying agent in

Lincoln,

Neb., has given USDA Organic

certificates to about 200

operations in China.

Executive director Jeff See said his company has

built trust with its producers since it started in China more than

12

years ago.

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At Rizhao Huasai Foodstuffs Co., in China's

Shandong

province, sales

official Cui Min said workers sometimes use a fertilizer mix that

includes human waste on their crops. It's a common practice in China,

but a clear violation of the USDA rules.

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See, whose company certified Rizhao Huasai, said workers there signed

an affidavit stating they follow the rules, including those regarding

fertilizers.

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Simply trusting the word of a farmer might not be fail-safe, said Gale,

 

of the USDA.

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In China

" there have always been laws and regulations on the books, but

you find a way around them, " he said.

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Mutsumi Sakuyoshi, a Japanese inspector who has checked Chinese soybean

 

fields for many of the world's largest certifiers, said she confronted

one farm's workers after finding an empty plastic bag of herbicide.

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Workers told her wind must have blown it from a neighbor's field.

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Another farmer gave her an affidavit stating the land under inspection

hadn't been used for at least three years. Sakuyoshi found the

government official who stamped it and questioned its accuracy.

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" He said, `No. I don't know. I don't care. They just asked me to

stamp

it, so I stamped it,' " she said.

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See said American farmers are more skeptical of Chinese organics

because they're a competitive threat to domestic producers.

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" I wouldn't say there's probably never any problem with what OCIA

has

going on in China,

but we find problems all around the world, even in

the U.S, " he said.

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Even when standards are upheld, there are concerns throughout the

industry that rules are unclear.

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One of many examples is a rule that livestock must have " access to

 

pasture. " It doesn't say how much, for how long, or how much of a

cow's

meal has to come from leisurely munching.

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Big dairies, such as Aurora Organic Dairy and Horizon Organic, were

criticized by activist groups for running " industrial-scale "

feedlots,

where they said cows rarely roamed on acres of dry, stubbly grass. Both

 

companies insist their cows do graze and met the requirements.

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The debate triggered boycotts, and led to a lengthy discussion during

the Dean Foods shareholders meeting in Dallas in May.

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The National Organic Standards Board stepped in, and offered more

detail, including a provision that cows must be on pasture for at least

 

120 days each year. It's now up to the USDA whether to make the

recommendation law. Representatives of both dairies said they support

the precision.

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Chris Grotegut is a farmer in the Texas panhandle who grows corn,

wheat, soybeans and other organic crops used in products distributed

nationally. He said enforcing clear rules is the only way to make

consumers trust the organic label.

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" That is a concern ... that credibility is maintained and people

don't

look at (organics) as a way to turn a conventional product into a fast

buck to cheat the system. "

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---

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COST OF ORGANIC

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Consumers will sometimes pay twice as much for an organic product.

Below are comparisons taken from local stores, including Tom Thumb,

Whole Foods and Wal-Mart.

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Product, Organic price, Regular price

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Raisin bran, 29.3 cents per ounce, 16 cents per ounce

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Chicken breast, $8.99 per pound, $4.99 per pound

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Strawberries, $4.99 per pound, $2.99 per pound

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Baby food, 21 cents per ounce, 14 cents per ounce

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Milk, $3.50 per half-gallon, $2.47 per half-gallon