Uganda Farming
May 28, 2015
4-H
June 11, 2015
Food Chain Radio Show #1016
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
National Organic Standards Board
and the Organic Tug-of-War
Is the organic industry holding to its original intent,
or is it being sold to outside interests?
Guest: Mark Kastel, Cornucopia Institute
This Poll is closed!!
A quarter century ago, the small farmers of organic agriculture gave themselves over to the federal government for safe keeping.
The intent was to develop an official definition for “organic” so all organic farmers would grow by the same rules and consumers of organic products would know exactly what they were buying.
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – National Organic Standards Board and the Organic Tug-of-War
Consequent to this federalizing of organic food and agriculture, the industry grew like the proverbial weed, from $1 billion in 1990 to well over $30 billion dollars today.
With so much money being made, those farmers and food manufacturers outside the walls of the federal program quite naturally feel left out and want in. And what better way to get in than by “making friends” with the gate keeper.
Today, the Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry “watchdog” group, is asking U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to sack the head of the National Organic Program (NOP) for making significant changes to the organic rules without public comment.
This on-going tug-of-war over the meaning of the word “organic” is having an impact on the public’s perception of the word. While 71% of U.S. consumers believe organic foods are healthier than conventional foods, 51% believe the word is simply an excuse for producers to charge more. And so we ask…
Leave a reply below: Is the organic industry holding to its original intent, or is it being sold to outside interests?
Tune in here, for the syndicated Food Chain Radio Show #1016 June 6, 2015 Saturday 9AM Pacific
6 Comments
A similar process to the now-evident corruption of “organic” is being threatened on “local food”. Too many big money interests getting in the game, with their main goal being profit maximization and only a token interest in sustainability and on the economic viability of small farms.
Although there is no way for a consumer to determine the mineral or nutritional difference between “organic” and unmarked, I like the idea of no pesticides and no GMO’s.
The solution, of course, would be to get to know local producers and buy everything from those who use the growing techniques that you prefer.
The “intent” of certification to begin with, well before asking USDA to run it, was to grow an INDUSTRY. To MAKE MONEY. That is a double-edged sword.
Miles McEvoy is not really in charge. Firing him will not change much.
Mark k doesn’t mention how the standards have gotten stronger since miles mcevoy came to usda. Ask him about the pasture rule, residue sampling rule, origin of livestock, animal welfare, civil penalties, no growth trend of the national list, accreditation scrutiny of organic certifiers, the standards and enforcement has gotten much stronger in the last 7 years.
Also ask mark what cornucopias membership structure is. They say they have 10,000 farmer “members” but their 990 shows there are actually only 8 members – their board of directors. How do we know this watchdog isnt watch dogging for his own special interests?
It is unfortunate that so little time on this program was spent on the narrow topic I thought Michael had intended.
Mark’s stump speeches on the lacks of integrity in the USDA’s operation of the NOP are certainly worthy — they NEED to be widely disseminated.
But this was a time to discuss HOW the “gatekeeping” of the National Organic Program operates, and if/how it can be successfully petitioned to promote the proliferation of the growing food in harmony with life, indeed as a WAY of life.
That conversation only BARELY got started in the last 15 minutes.
“Industry” (in a world run by the Elite to live ludicrously high off the hog on the backs of the rest of humanity and the drawing down of the savings account of accumulation of 350 million years of solar capture) is not a way of life, it is a way to turn resources into coin-of-the-realm and waste, depleting bio-capital and defecating in one’s mess kit.
I suspect Miles McEvoy is probably doing all he can do, without getting fired, towards furthering the noble and vital goals of organic agriculture. Anyone who asked for expanding organic agriculture by building economic industry in it was asking for it to become controlled by those with the most economic muscle — and THEY ultimately control what the USDA (indeed the entire US government) does or does not do.
Unless and until we have a socio-econo-political system that is not by and for thems with the gold, to get the “system” to give a rat’s ass about the integrity of organics will be a continual throwing of ourselves against the castle walls, bloodying and dying, to gain only inches and scraps of real progress, whilst in all other parts of the castle, even greater “progress” will continue to be made by interests counter to ours.
As Mark reported, it is citizen actions apart from government agency that has to do the heavy lifting — and in that moment, he was not referring to citizens petitioning the lord with prayer (cite to Jim Morrison.)
He was using “has to” meaning “because the government has been failing to”. I say “has to” because I say the government will not, and never was going to. To have asked them to be the gatekeepers of organic integrity was not only a Fool’s Errand, but an assurance of exponentially increasing the difficulties already faced in 1983 that the pre-USDA “certification” approach was not solving. I said in 1983 that the certification approach would not solve them, and begged for a specific, different approach. I said when DeFazio was being beseeched to champion National Organic Standards legislation that not only would it have unintended consequences we all would regret, but I also reminded of its underlying assumptions that were not cracked up to be what we were taught as children that they were.
It was the desperate desire to believe in those myths that instead drove the train. And while Mark continues to work so hard (THANK YOU MARK!) on the citizen heavy lifting end, he yet still seems to speak as if those fairy tales are real. I don’t know if that is something that he actually believes, or something that he simply must say in his watchdog role — for certainly if we give up hoping and trying, it feels like we will surely be facilitating what we so deeply fear.
i am a certified grower,that grow over 30 different produce items
we use very little inputs,have cover crops,wid flowers a eco-system
there is a big difference between using the natural world
for organic growing and the way the big corporate organic is grown
there needs to be usda grades,of the process of the production
there will always be a need for mass produced organic food
for it is still much better ,then conventional