USDA Requirements for Organic Foods

What does the “organic” certification mean?   What benefits does certified organic foods provide the customer?    Organic foods are supposed to be safer, healthier, and have less harmful chemicals than other produce.     Supposedly, the certification process involves selecting the right seeds and growing them in uncontaminated soil.   It further certifies that the soil cannot have had any chemicals/herbicides added to it in the past three years. It means no unnatural substances can be added to the soil for the past three years.   It means that the seeds planted must not be GMO seeds. It means that weed herbicides and pesticides must not be added in with the seeds during planting. Seeds must not be soaked in chemicals and chemicals must not be added to the irrigation water.   Even beyond that, certification demands that organically grown plants must not be allowed to co-mingle with other nonorganically certified produce. Finally, it requires that organic food producers must have detailed record-keeping that can establish adherence to the requirements from start to finish. 

The second part of this is that there must be verification of adherence to the USDA requirements.   Do people really believe that inspectors are ensuring that all rules are followed? Who is checking to see that organic foods are grown and processed according to federal guidelines including analyzing the soil quality, checking the feed for the animals, and avoiding pest and weed chemical control? Organic producers are expected to rely on natural substances and methods that allow for physical, mechanical, or biologically based farming control methods, but they all know that chemical control is easier.   

Even when a producer has no choice but to use a synthetic substance to achieve a specific purpose, the substance must first be approved according to criteria that examine its effects on human health and the environment.   In other words, a farmer must get permission so to speak from the FDIC. 

Milk and Meat Production 

As for organic meat, regulations require that animals are raised in living conditions that accommodate their natural behaviors (like the ability to graze on pasture), and that they are fed 100% organic feed and forage.  They must not be fed or administered antibiotics and/ or hormones. However, when the milk truck comes and loads up the milk from the barn bulk tank and then goes and does the same at several other farms, how can anyone tell which part of the milk in a bulk tank came from which farmer. The milk from several farmers is all added to the bulk tank on the truck and is mixed together molecularly as the truck drives from one dairy farm to another. If one farmer does not adhere to the USDA rules as well as another, would you un-certify the whole liquid truckload of milk, even though other dairy farms were strict in compliance with the USDA rules?

Processed Multi-ingredient Foods

Processed,  multi-ingredient foods, must not contain artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors and require that their ingredients are organic, with some minor exceptions. For example, processed organic foods may contain some approved non-agricultural ingredients, like enzymes in yogurt, pectin in fruit jams, or baking soda in baked goods.

When packaged products indicate they are “made with organic [specific ingredient or food group],” this means they contain at least 70% organically produced ingredients. The remaining non-organic ingredients are produced without using prohibited practices (genetic engineering, for example) but can include substances that would not otherwise be allowed in 100% organic products. “Made with organic” products will not bear the USDA organic seal, but, as with all other organic products, must still identify the USDA-accredited certifier. You can look for the identity of the certifier on a packaged product that meets USDA’s organic standards.   However, it might be noted that according to an unnamed source at a grocery store meat department, the USDA still allows pink slime to be added to the organic meat. An individual must decide if he/she thinks that it is acceptable.

As with all organic foods, none of it is grown or handled using genetically modified organisms, which the organic standards expressly prohibit. (see “Organic 101: What Organic Farming (and Processing) Doesn’t Allow”).

According to the USDA,  there are many marketing claims that add value to foods, but consumers can be assured that USDA organic products are verified organic at all steps between the farm and the store.   IS this marketing propaganda? It would take many inspectors to verify that all farm produce is or was produced according to Organic regulations every minute of its production. 

One farmer said this: Of course, you realize that because idiot consumers demanded that the government get involved with the definition and certification policy, and the government has a one-size-fits-all mentality, and the one-size that the government serves best is the mega-industrial size, that small farmers who do not have on-staff lawyers and CPAs cannot become “certified organic” without spending a double-digit percentage share of their annual revenue to satisfy this bloated process.

As it stands right now, “organic” is used mainly by the same industrial ag- outfits as a marketing tool.  When in reality consumers are buying what they originally were trying to get away from by choosing organic food.   They are being deceived by the USDA, because they have been given full control in making the rules and guidelines for organic foods, but no one is checking on the USDA to prevent them from exploiting this guideline-making power. 

common cents

Mar 28, 2012 – Certified farmer

Yep the USDA. They sure have kept our food supply safe and healthy over the past 30 years (sarcasm).   The USDA allows marketers to add ‘pink slime’ in their ground beef.   Let’s talk about the USDA and the corporate ‘dairies they license. No one can keep track of where milk comes from including the USDA.   The USDA allows carrageenan to be added to infant formula for crying out loud. It’s a bowel irritant. Anyone can write a list of standards, but no one is honest about how or whether or not the rules can be enforced. (corrections have been made to the written version by the farmer)

Another comment by a farmer:

USDA is not serious enough about organic agriculture as is evident by the limits for cost-sharing as opposed to what can be received as a conventional producer. This is blatant discrimination. There are also not enough staff who are knowledgeable or want to work with organic producers. We need to be thinking ahead a few decades to when the oil, water and natural fertilizer run out. How do we farm then?  Organic production in this country needs to be ramped up significantly and taught extensively. Our future food security and millions of starving people are at stake in the coming decades. I can produce enough food on 20 acres to feed 100 families easily with organic production. I am also building soil carbon and helping reduce greenhouse gases. Then we here Hollywood talk. Why not put some folks from Rodale drive on the staff of The USDA to balance out the number of ex-Monsanto employees working there? USDA is more about production these days than about sustainability.

Summary 

Organic Certification is much better than nothing at all, but it is not exactly what people have been led to believe.   It may help consumers avoid some harmful substances, but it does not protect them from all bad substances and practices.   Each individual must decide for himself if organics is actually worth the extra premiums they are paying for food. The actual best answer to food contamination is to produce your own food in your own greenhouse.   How many people can do that?