"Organic" Mega-Dairy Reapplies for Certification

The Case Vander Eyk dairy, suspended from organic certification in May, tells the Capital Press it is now working with a new certification agency to get back in business. "We're working with another certifier now and expect to be back in a couple of weeks," said Vander Eyk. "This is not uncommon, and it is very disruptive to our operation."

I would be very eager to find out who this new certifier is. I find it surprising to say the least that a company can be decertified by one entity and then be considered for recertification by another a month later. At the very least, this should prompt a review by the USDA's National Organic Program.

According to this article: "Vander Eyk, who has been an organic milk producer since 1999, said last week he did not know the reason for his suspension by certifier Quality Assurance International." I also find this statement hard to believe, considering the process involved in suspending a producer, a process that includes time for the producer to try and correct the situation.

The Limits of Local

I had a spirited discussion on Seattle's NPR affiliate, KUOW, on the local v. organic debate, but it wasn't much of a debate, since the highest standard everyone seemed to prefer was local AND organic. The chef and author Deborah Madison had a thoughtful piece on Culinate reaching the same conclusion.

The point I tried to make is that local alone is not sufficient. Buying within a certain radius of one's house could mean purchasing from Smithfield Farm if you're in North Carolina, and that might not be what locavores have in mind.

The problem with local is that distance gets the major emphasis, rather than environmental impact, the way the food is produced, or the myriad other issues to consider in reaching a higher food standard. Organic has been criticized because it's all about the method (rather than distance or social justice), but I expect local too will find itself facing similar criticisms. Take note that among the most active opponents to chemical and intensive animal farming are neighbors who live nearby the fields and manure ponds. They don't want this in their backyard, yet it's from a local farm. ...Oh wait, that's not what you mean by local. And Wal-Mart wasn't what organic was supposed to be either.

- Samuel Fromartz

Organic Through Rose Colored Glasses

(Editors Note: We are correcting the misstatement in the original version of this post that Wolaver's sources organic hops. They do not. We explain their position, beginning in the 12th paragraph below).

By Samuel Fromartz

The news that the USDA was on the verge of approving 38 non-organic agricultural ingredients for use in organic food got a lot of attention this week.

The Los Angeles Times first picked up on the story, then the rest of the media pack, and the early trust seemed to be: the USDA is being pushed by lobbyists to loosen organic food regulations!

But is that the case?

First, a little background about these 38, background that requires us to get deep-and-dirty in the world of USDA organic regulations.

A product can only be labeled organic if 95 percent of the ingredients are in fact organic. (A standard that is accepted globally under various organic regimes).

In that remaining 5 percent, non-organic ingredients can be used, but only if specifically approved by the citizens advisory panel known as the National Organic Standards Board. If they pass muster with the NOSB, they are placed on the so-called National List by the Secretary of Agriculture and allowed to be used.

There was one exception however: non-organic agricultural ingredients had an express pass to get into an organic product. If the organic processor told his certifier than an organic agricultural ingredient was not available, then the certifier could issue a pass for the non-organic version to be used. No review by the NOSB, no placement on the National List. Just a pass by the certifier.

Can't get organic turmeric? Then go ahead use the non-organic version in the 5-percent. Can't get organic hops for beer. Use non-organic hops, again at a 5-percent threshold.

Well, an organic blueberry farmer from Maine, Arthur Harvey, had a big problem with this and sued the USDA. He won in 2005 and the court gave the USDA two years to place specific non-organic agricultural ingredients on the National List. The two years expired June 8, 2007.

So while all the stories are screaming – THE USDA IS GOING TO APPROVE 38 NON-ORGANIC INGREDIENTS! – the real news is that USDA is going to drastically limit the current widespread use of non-organic agricultural ingredients to just 38 and only after they get a a review by the NOSB. This is all thanks to Harvey.

That said, I have a problem with some of these 38 that got by the NOSB.

Take hops, which are getting a blanket exemption. The big boys like Anheuser-Busch argue that they can't find enough organic hops, so need an exemption to use non-organic hops. This is apparently a widespread issue, since a micro-brewer like Wolaver's Organic in Vermont also told me too that they had trouble finding hops. The only source appropriate for the taste profile of their beer comes from New Zealand. One farmer they were sourcing from in the State of Washington (pictured below, at  Wolaver's web site) pulled out of the market a year ago because of the challenges of growing the crop organically.

But why can't Anheuser-Busch and Wolaver's enlist more growers into the market, where organic hops go for three times the price of conventional?  After all, they have had two years since the court ruling in the Harvey case to plan their future demand.

Morgan Wolaver agreed that more needed to be done to entice growers into the market. But in the meantime, they need the exemption if they are going to make organic pale ale. Each year they show their certifier that organic hops are not available and each year they get an exemption.

"How do you build organic demand into an exemption?" Wolaver asked. "It gets back to the breweries to really push this." 

Exactly. And if they don't push on the demand side, then the supply will never be there. To be fair, 98-percent of the ingredients in Wolaver's Organic beer are in fact organic.

The other exemption I find questionable is the use of non-organic casings in organic sausages. The rules on organic meat are strict. No animal qualifies as organic unless it was raised organically from the last trimester of gestation. That means the mother has to be organic too, at least in the last third of its pregnancy. If the offspring does not meet this hurdle, then it's not organic.

Except for intestines. For some reason, intestines used in sausage making will get a pass. I find this curious, since the existence of organic meat suggests that organic intestines are also around. And somebody will have a great incentive to make them into casings if they are required.

I spoke with Jim Riddle, former chairman of the NOSB, and he raised questions about the exemption for fish oil, since organic fish isn't even defined yet. He also pointed out the public was only given 7 days to comment on these issues, which is almost as bad as having no comment period at all.

But should all non-organic ingredients be banned, even if used in minute amounts like colorings? Well, then a huge amount of organic products would vanish, crimping demand for the organic ingredients used in the other 95 percent of these products. You are going to have these exemptions unless you want to take the next logical position and ban many organic processed food products, a position that more than a few organic advocates take, including Harvey. But the consensus, globally, in organic circles - and that includes farmers and NGOs not just Big Organic - has been to allow a select few in once they are reviewed.

So the question always becomes where to draw the line. Ethicurean's post on organic annatto considers this issue, although I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion.

In an ideal world, organic farmers will come up with all the organic agricultural ingredients that processors need.

My worry is that the non-organic ingredients will become the de facto ingredients and no one will step up to the plate to try and produce organic ones. Or that once given an exemption, processors will argue that the organic version is not in the right "form" or doesn't meet "quality" standards, another way it can justify using the non-organic versions.

Right now, though, organic processors are in a pinch. The USDA sent out a notice to certifiers on June 8 reminding them that they must avoid using non-organic ingredients (not on the National List) as of midnight. In the meantime, the USDA has not yet approved any of the 38 replacements, as of today.

So, all those beer makers using non-organic hops and all those sausage makers using non-organic casings are not in compliance with the law, if they are still using those ingredients today.

I wonder what they're doing? Hopefully ramping up organic ingredient supplies as they should have done all along.

Where Does Your Food Come From?

The supermarket, of course. The BBC reports:

The Linking Environment and Farming organization found 22% of 1,073 adults questioned did not know bacon and sausages originate from farms.

Some 47% of people did not know farms produced porridge's main ingredient.

I guess we have quite a ways to go in bringing awareness of food and farming into the mainstream, though this survey was surprising to me. Forget about the debate of local and organic, people don't even know food comes from farms. (Via Gristmill).

A Class Act on Food

Tom Philpott over at Grist has an extremely thoughtful essay on Slow Food exploring tough issues like  elitism in the sustainable foods movement.

For all its good work -- and despite its roots within the Italian labor movement -- Slow Food has itself been hounded by charges of elitism. The critique goes like this: Who but a rich few can spend time wringing their hands over whether, say, a cheese that's been made in some Tuscan village for hundreds of years goes extinct -- a cheese that only the well-off can afford anyway?

Yet Slow Food's class problem really applies to the sustainable food movement in all industrialized nations, including the U.S. In short, our economy runs on cheap food; many people rely on it to feed themselves; and advocates of farmers' markets, CSAs, and organic food are asking people to pay more for food without giving them a strategy for raising wages.

The movement is caught between two poles, of wanting to provide more affordable food but also trying to maintain a decent living for its farmers. Closing that gap, Philpott argues, is a primary challenge for the movement ahead.

The Big Blue

Today marks World Oceans Day, so we direct you to Blogfish, which has a "carnival of the blue" going on with a compendium of thoughtful posts from blogs everywhere on the subject.

Eulogy for an "Organic" Mega-Dairy

The suspension of a mega-organic dairy in California continues to generate attention, with the most recent from a neighbor who had the foresight to take video of the operation and post it on her blog, Rebuild from Depression. She also has a very insightful post about the operation that I recommend others to read.

What this work shows is that producers and consumers are very interested in transparency and, with the use of the Internet, will out those producers who are skirting the regulations. This is what transparency is all about and what underpins organic and sustainable foods.

Without further adieu, on to the video eulogy. (Note on video: It views better if you download the whole thing before playing unless you have a fast connection). 

Whole Foods Isn't a Supermarket?

By Samuel Fromartz

A supermarket is a supermarket except when it's not, the Federal Trade Commission said this week.

The commission threw down the gauntlet and opposed the combination of Whole Foods and Wild Oats, because their merger would create a monopoly in that protected enclave, the natural foods business. This would lead to higher natural and organic food prices and store quality would go down. Whole Foods already gets slammed for its prices. Now they would move higher? And the stores are going to look like crap? This is a recipe for business success?

I find this view, at the very least, myopic and want to send the staff copies of my book. (Anybody willing to put up the chump change for this action?) Considering that every other supermarket chain has launched a surprising array of organic food products and that leading products, such as organic bagged lettuce, are sold in three out of every four grocery stores in the nation, the idea of a separate natural foods business is something of a fantasy. According to the Times:

Neil Currie, an analyst at UBS Investment Research, said in a note to investors that the F.T.C.’s actions were “somewhat at odds” with the recent blurring of lines between stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s and more conventional chains like Publix and Wegmans. He said that 74 percent of natural and organic foods were now sold through mass-market channels like conventional supermarkets.

Yesterday, Natural Food Merchandiser came out with its survey which pegged the retail natural foods business at $46 billion. The share held by conventional grocery stores: 50 percent, or $23 billion. Whole Foods does not have the remaining 50 percent. In fact, its sales last year were $6 billion. Wild Oats annual sales were a little over $1 billion, which gives them a combined 15 percent of natural food sales.

Whole Foods also decided to pursue this merger with a very old nemesis once it became clear that  competition was arising from new entrants, such as traditional grocery stores. Even Wal-Mart, the biggest supermarket in the nation, whose sales are bigger than the next-six biggest chains, is selling organic food. In other words, this merger was a defensive strategy by Whole Foods to protect against new competitors, not to get a lock on the market. That's impossible, now that natural and organic foods have gone mainstream.

Maybe if Whole Foods sold Coca-Cola, or other products with a lot of high-fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors and colors, the merger would go through. After all, then it would be just be another supermarket. But it doesn't, so it's not.

Advice to Whole Foods CEO John Mackey: Call Bill Gates and get the number for his lawyer. Microsoft's a true monopoly and through many legal actions they are still doing just fine.

Questions Linger on Sour Organic Milk

Carol Ness in the SF Chronicle has a good follow-up to our breaking story yesterday about the Vander Eyk dairy being stripped of organic certification in California. This is a very significant enforcement action in the organic world, though it begs a few questions.

• Why did QAI certify the confinement dairy in the first place? Did it ever meet the organic regulation?
• Will this signal a trend or aberration?
• Will this mega-farm be able to get recertified?

If confinement dairy practices aren't corrected, then the next phase will be to design an additional label for organic milk that truly reflects organic practices such as pasturing - a prospect that is now being floated. That would be a shame and a cause of additional consumer confusion but that will happen if the USDA's National Organic Program does not move forward with a pasture rule that would outlaw these kind of operations.

Bananas with a Face

Dole Organic began putting a little sticker on its bananas earlier this year, allowing consumers to see where the fruit was grown. I blogged on this months ago. Now they've taken the program further, allowing for interaction with the farm. Dole has posted an email one customer wrote and then an amazing number of responses from workers on the banana plantation in La Guajira, Colombia.

Photos: Dole Organic

Among a few choice quotes:

"I evaluate the agronomical practices at the banana fields. Your letter made me feel that my work is appreciated. Thank you very much!" - Dulcinis Atencio

"You said you will keep us in your mind every time you eat an organic banana, we promise to keep you in mind every time we pack your bananas. Thank you for your letter." - Midelfi Mejías

"Everything started with this small sticker with the three digits... It is hard to believe that this tiny piece of paper created a beautiful link between you and all of us in Don Pedro ...I put the stickers on the organic bananas." - Tatiana Barros

OK, I know this is PR. I know the statements come through the company. I know this reveals little about the actual operation. But the appreciation expressed by the workers was pretty amazing, as if they were finally recognized for growing food! What a thought.

I encourage people to read this new experiment in the farmer-consumer connection over thousands of miles. Thanks to Luis Monge, regional certification officer for Dole's Organic Program, for the shout out on this development.

Certification Yanked at Big Organic Dairy

By Samuel Fromartz

In a sign that pressure is mounting on big confinement organic dairy farms, Quality Assurance International, a major organic certification agency, has yanked certification for the Case Vander Eyk organic dairy in California, an operation with an estimated 3,500 cows.

This dairy in the central valley of California has been the subject of complaints by the advocacy group, Cornucopia Institute. But QAI's decision marks the first time a certifier has suspended a big confinement dairy, though these farms have been criticized for years.

Photo: Cornucopia Institute

"The process took quite a long time," one source with direct knowledge of the situation said, because of the review requirements under the USDA's National Organic Program.

Once certification is suspended, as it was in this case in mid-May, the operation can no longer sell its products as organic. It can, however, appeal the certifier's decision to the NOP, which then reviews the details of the case.

One source said the farm didn't comply with organic regulations in a number of areas, including pasture.

The Vander Eyk dairy was among several large-scale farms that became lightening rods in the organic  industry over the past several years as the organic dairy market expanded at 20-30 percent a year.

Several large scale farms came on line and others were looking to transition to the market. But many organic dairy farmers, consumer groups and advocates strongly objected to these confinement dairy farms that offered little or no pasture to their milking cows.

Complaints were filed with the USDA's National Organic Program and efforts redoubled to tighten up the regulatory language requiring pasture so these large-scale confinement farms would be shut down.

The Vander Eyk dairy, which had both conventional and organic operations, had been selling milk to Horizon Organic, but it was yanked as a supplier when its contract ran out in 2006, because it no longer met the company's standards. Horizon, the largest organic milk company, had come under a lot of pressure for a large-scale dairy farm it owns in Idaho. But it has since invested millions in the farm to add pasture in a process that is now nearly complete.

Horizon Organic has backed a tighter organic pasture standard, calling for cows to graze at least 120 days on pasture with at least 30 percent of the cow's nutritional needs coming from fresh grass. Organic dairy farmers nationwide are pushing for this strict language and it is currently under review by the NOP.

The Vander Eyk farm was among several, such as Aurora Organic in Colorado, which did not offer meaningful pasture access to its cows. But the language was so vague in the current regulations that it became a loophole that allowed organic confinement farms to exist, much to the dismay of many organic proponents.

"Your headline should read 'Case Closed,'" said Mark Kastel of Cornucopia Institute.

But the final chapter of these big organic dairy farms has yet to be written.

Salad Safety

Natural Selection Foods, the company at the heart of the spinach e. coli outbreak last fall, is now testing product intensely. And it continues to find dangerous microbes regularly. Check out my report on NPR.