Fwd: FW: [Food-news] What Is Organic? Powerful Players Want a Say

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> [Food-news] What Is Organic? Powerful

> Players Want a Say

>

> wwww.foodnews.ca<br><br>Editor's Note: This article

> highlights the tensions around the<br>construction

> and maintenance of organic standards. As major

> food<br>processing and retail corporations from

> McDonalds and Wal Mart to Kraft<br>and General Mills

> are marketing organic foods, consumer groups

> and<br>small-scale organic farmers are concerned

> that corporate interest in<br>organics could lead to

> watered down standards. US Congress, the

> National<br>Standards Board and US courts are all

> recent witnesses to this debate. A<br>dispute

> earlier this year to allow some synthetics in

> organic production<br>represents a slippery slope

> for those who wish to prevent the " diluting

> of<br>organic principles. " Will the regulation of

> organic standards in the US<br>push the old organic

> in a new direction? Will the gatekeepers

> of<br>traditional organic values once again be in a

> position where their<br>approach to farming is best

> represented through private standards under a<br>new

>

> name?<br><br><br>www.nytimes.com<br><br>November 1,

> 2005<br><br>What Is Organic? Powerful Players Want a

> Say<br><br>By MELANIE WARNER<br><br>Customers at

> McDonald's restaurants in New England are about to

> get<br>something a little different<br>when they

> order coffee. Through a deal with Green Mountain

> Coffee<br>Roasters and Newman's Own,<br>McDonald's

> will soon be serving a coffee that comes from

> organic beans<br>and is certified Fair<br>Trade

> because it meets higher standards in the treatment

> of coffee<br>workers.<br><br>The move, while still a

> test in a limited region, reflects a much<br>broader

> trend: The growing<br>interest among large food

> companies in offering organic foods along<br>with

> their standard products.<br>General Mills markets

> the Cascadian Farms and Muir Glen brands;

> Kraft<br>owns Back to Nature and<br>Boca Foods,

> which makes soy burgers. Within the last few years,

> Dean<br>Foods, the dairy giant,<br>has acquired

> Horizon Organic and White Wave, maker of Silk

> organic<br>soymilk. Groupe Danone, the<br>French

> dairy company, owns Stonyfield Farm.<br><br>Wal-Mart

> wants in, too. " We are particularly excited about

> organic<br>food, the fastest-growing<br>category in

> all of food, " Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's chief executive,

> said<br>at a recent shareholder<br>meeting. " It's a

> great example of how Wal-Mart can appeal to a

> wider<br>range of customers. " <br><br>But as organic

> food enters the mainstream, evolving from an

> idealistic<br>subculture rooted in<br>images of

> granola and Birkenstocks, a bitter debate has ensued

> over<br>what exactly the word<br> " organic " should

> mean. And now Congress is jumping into

> the<br>controversy.<br><br>With sales of roughly $12

> billion, organic food remains a niche

> market<br>within the $500 billion<br>food industry.

> But the sector's growing appeal to consumers has

> fueled<br>a 20 percent annual<br>growth rate in

> recent years, making it highly attractive to food

> giants<br>looking for gains in a<br>slow-moving

> business.<br><br>At General Mills, the Cascadian

> Farms and Muir Glen brands increased<br>sales by 21

> percent in the<br>last year, according to the

> research firm Information Resources Inc.,<br>while

> the company's<br>overall business was up just 1.6

> percent.<br><br>Consumer groups and some organic

> pioneers say they are concerned that<br>the movement

> - a response<br>to the practices of corporate food

> production that promotes a natural<br>chemical-free

> approach to<br>farming - will become watered down

> unless firm standards are<br>maintained.<br><br>The

> debate has been under way for several years. But

> last week, Senate<br>and House Republicans on<br>the

> Agriculture appropriations subcommittee inserted a

> last-minute<br>provision into the<br>department's

> fiscal 2006 budget specifying that certain

> artificial<br>ingredients could be used

> in<br>organic food.<br><br>The Organic Trade

> Association, an industry lobbying group that

> proposed<br>the amendment and spent<br>several

> months

> pushing for its adoption, says that the measure

> will<br>encourage the continued<br>growth of organic

> food.<br><br>Some advocacy groups, however, say the

> amendment will weaken federal<br>organic food

> standards,<br>first established under a 1990 law.

> Ronnie Cummins, national director<br>of the Organic

> Consumers<br>Association, calls the initiative a

> " sneak attack engineered by the<br>likes of Kraft,

> Dean Foods<br>and Smucker's. " <br><br>One of the

> lobbyists for Altria, Kraft's majority owner,

> Abigail Blunt<br>- the wife of<br>Representative Roy

> Blunt, Republican of Missouri, who recently

> became<br>interim House majority<br>leader after Tom

> DeLay of Texas resigned from the post - has

> been<br>working on the issue, the<br>company

> says.<br><br>Dean Foods' subsidiary Horizon Organic

> and the J. M. Smucker Company,<br>the owner of

> Knudsen and<br>Santa Cruz Organic juices, said they

> supported the work by the Organic<br>Trade

> Association, which<br>represents both large and

> small

> companies in the business, but did no<br>lobbying on

> their own.<br><br>The amendment injects Congress

> directly into the debate over whether<br>certain

> artificial<br>ingredients and industrial chemicals

> should be allowed in products<br>labeled organic. In

> a<br>lawsuit ruled upon in January, Arthur Harvey,

> an organic blueberry<br>farmer, argued that

> no<br>synthetics at all should be in food bearing

> the " U.S.D.A. Organic " <br>seal. A federal judge

> agreed,<br>sending shivers down the spine of many

> organic food manufacturers.<br><br>Katherine

> DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic

> Trade<br>Association, said that the<br>amendment was

> intended to protect the industry from the Harvey

> ruling<br>and will not change the<br>status quo. If

> applied, the judge's ruling would have forced

> many<br>manufacturers to stop using<br>the U.S.D.A.

> Organic seal and instead relabel products to state,

> for<br>instance, " cookies made<br>with organic

> flour " or " frozen lasagna made with organic

> tomatoes. " <br><br>Many in the organic industry say

> they are willing to allow some use of<br>synthetics

> in organic<br>food. Since 2002, the National Organic

> Standards Board, a 15-member<br>panel of advisers

> appointed<br>by the Agriculture Department, has

> served as the gatekeeper for such<br>substances. In

> that time,<br>38 have been approved, many of them

> relatively harmless ingredients<br>like baking

> powder, pectin,<br>ascorbic acid and carbon

> dioxide.<br><br>But Joseph Mendelson, legal director

> at the Center for Food Safety, a<br>liberal advocacy

> group,<br>says that the proposed legislation will

> open the door to a range of<br>other chemicals

> and<br>artificial materials, including a large

> category of so-called food<br>contact substances

> -<br>things like boiler additives, disinfectants and

> lubricants with<br>unpronounceable

> names.<br><br>Most of these substances would not end

> up in finished products in<br>detectable amounts.

> But many<br>in the organic community say that these

> tools of mainstream food<br>processing do not belong

> in<br>organic production.<br><br> " We don't want

> organic food manufacturers having carte blanche use

> of<br>the same kind of<br>synthetics that

> conventional food processors use, especially when

> it<br>involves things that do<br>not appear on the

> ingredient panels, " said James A. Riddle, chairman

> of<br>the National Organic<br>Standards Board. " I

> think people choose to buy organic food

> because<br>they don't use all

> those<br>things. " <br><br>Ms. DiMatteo contends that

> the Organic Trade Association is not trying<br>to

> loosen organic<br>standards or take authority away

> from the standards board.<br><br>At the same time,

> Charles Sweat, chief operating officer at

> Earthbound<br>Farm, the country's<br>argest grower

> of organic produce, said he was concerned with

> the<br>section of the spending bill<br>that gives

> the Agriculture Department authority to grant

> temporary<br>exemptions to allow<br>conventionally

> grown ingredients like corn,

> soybean oil or tomatoes in<br>organic food

> when<br>organic versions are not " commercially

> available. " <br><br> " We see this as opening up a

> Pandora's box, " Mr. Sweat said. " Any<br>company that

> can't compete<br>because something is too expensive

> could go to the secretary and claim<br>they need an

> exemption. " <br><br>George Simeon, chief executive of

> Organic Valley, a cooperative of<br>mostly small

> organic dairy<br>farmers, wrestled with the high

> cost of organic production a little<br>over a year

> ago when<br>Wal-Mart asked for a 20 percent price

> cut. For three years, Organic<br>Valley had been

> Wal-Mart's primary supplier of organic

> milk.<br><br> " Wal-Mart allows you to really build

> market share, " Mr. Simeon said.<br> " But we're about

> our values<br>and being able to sustain our farmers.

> If a customer wants to stretch<br>us to the point

> where<br>we're not able to deliver our mission, then

> we have to find different<br>markets. " <br><br>Mr.

> Simeon told Wal-Mart to get a new

> supplier.<br><br>Dean Foods' Horizon Organic was

> better equipped to satisfy Wal-Mart's<br>demands.

> Horizon gets<br>about 20 percent of its production

> from a 4,000-cow organic dairy in<br>Paul, Idaho,

> which is<br>small in comparison with many

> conventional dairy farms but huge by<br>organic

> standards.<br><br>Mark Kastel, senior farm policy

> analyst at Cornucopia, a group<br>representing small

> dairy farmers,<br>contends that Horizon is able to

> run such a large farm because it<br>dilutes organic

> principles.<br>Earlier this year, his group filed a

> petition arguing that the Idaho<br>farm crams too

> many cows<br>into a confined area, where most of

> them do not graze on pasture but<br>instead consume

> a<br>high-grain diet.<br><br><br> " These factory

> farms are trying to cut corners, " Mr. Kastel said.

> " When<br>you feed more<br>calorie-dense grains, you

> get more milk. " <br><br>Horizon, which also buys milk

> from 305 family farms, says it is making<br>changes

> and will divide<br>its Idaho

> operation into two separate farms so that there will

> be three<br>to five cows for each<br>acre of

> pasture.<br><br> " We want to meet the regulations, "

> said Kelly O'Shea, Horizon's<br>director of

> government and<br>industry relations, " and see

> integrity in the organic standards. " <br><br>The

> National Organic Standards Board has been trying to

> persuade the<br>Agriculture Department to<br>clarify

> its vague rule that to produce organic milk, dairy

> cows,<br>besides receiving only organic<br>feed and

> avoiding growth hormones and antibiotics, must have

> " access to<br>pasture. " It wants to<br>require that

> milk labeled organic come from cows that get at

> least 30<br>percent of their diet from<br>pasture

> grass for a minimum of 120 days a year.<br><br>Mr.

> Kastel of Cornucopia estimates that roughly 30

> percent of the<br>organic milk sold in the<br>United

> States comes from cows that are not on pasture, most

> of them<br>from two large dairies<br>run by Aurora

> Organic Dairy, an offshoot of what

> was once the country's<br>largest

> conventional<br>dairy company. Organic milk is the

> most popular organic product and<br>sells for up to

> twice the<br>price of regular milk.<br><br>On a

> recent visit to Aurora's farm in Platteville, Colo.,

> at the foot<br>of the Rocky Mountains,<br>thousands

> of Holsteins were seen confined to grassless,

> dirt-lined pens<br>and eating from a long<br>trough

> filled with 55 percent hay and 45 percent grains,

> mostly corn<br>and soybeans.<br><br>Of the 5,200

> cows on the farm, just a few hundred - those

> between<br>milking cycles or near the<br>end of

> their lactation - were sitting or grazing on small

> patches of<br>pasture.<br><br>Aurora executives say

> that despite the lack of pasture, their cows

> are<br> " very healthy and<br>happy. " The 10 million

> gallons of milk the farm produces each year

> are<br>supplied mainly to<br>supermarkets and sold

> under store brands like Safeway Select,

> Kirkland<br>at Costco and Archer<br>Farms at

> Target.<br><br>Mark Retzloff,

> president of Aurora Organic, said he did not agree

> with<br>the National Organic Standards Board's

> proposed pasture rule, but added<br>that he was

> planning to add 550 acres of grazing land to the

> farm. The<br>company is also building a new dairy in

> a layout that Mr. Retzloff said<br>would be

> conducive to putting thousands of cows on pasture

> and still<br>milking them three times a day.<br>Such

> tensions are likely to remain whatever the new

> legislation allows.<br>Sheryl O'Laughlin, chief

> executive of Clif Bar, which makes organic<br>energy

> bars, says that while the difficulty of operating

> organically and<br>finding natural ingredients often

> ends up raising production costs, it<br>is also what

> gives the category its purity and its

> appeal.<br> " The organic industry, " <br><br>Ms.

> O'Laughlin said, " has got to put pressure on itself

> to find<br>alternative

> solutions. " <br><br><br><br>WHO WE ARE: This e-mail

> service shares information to help more

> people<br>discuss crucial policy issues

> affecting global food security. The service<br>is

> managed by Amber McNair of the University of Toronto

> in partnership<br>with the Centre for Urban Health

> Initiatives (CUHI) and Wayne Roberts of<br>the

> Toronto Food Policy Council, in partnership with the

> Community Food<br>Security Coalition, World Hunger

> Year, and International Partners for<br>Sustainable

> Agriculture.<br>Please help by sending information

> or names and e-mail addresses of<br>co-workers who'd

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