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Is organic food the real deal?

The USDA has strict rules regulating who can use the label, but a Dallas
Morning News analysis found those standards aren't always enforced.

06:48 PM CDT on Monday, July 17, 2006
By PAULA LAVIGNE / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/071606dncc
oorganics.19c550e.html

 More and more shoppers are forking out extra money for organic foods to
avoid chemicals, eat healthy and support the environment.

But the USDA Organic label, stamped on foods as diverse as cookies, milk
and mangos, may not be a mark the public can always trust.

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.

But a Dallas Morning News analysis 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.

"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."

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.

 Barbara Robinson, the USDA executive who oversees the National Organic
Program, said her small staff struggles to keep up with the booming
industry.

"When you have eight or nine people, and everybody wants something, you try
to do a little bit of everything."

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

"I don't think there are any absolutes in the world anywhere. I think
that's kind of a ridiculous question," she said.

Ms. 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.

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

"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.

The organic program monitors at least 20,000 organic growers, ranchers,
processing plants and others worldwide.

Texas looms large in organics, with more organic land than any other state.
It is also home to one of the nation's biggest organic companies, Dean
Foods in Dallas, which distributes Horizon Organic dairy products and Silk
soy milk. Whole Foods of Austin is the nation's largest organic retail
chain. Representatives from both companies say they take measures to make
sure their products are organic.

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 debate.
However, shoppers often view organic food as an investment in their health.

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.

Those surveyed said having children was the most significant reason to go
organic, and that's what prompted 28-year-old Megan Stewart of The Colony.

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.

"I only get the USDA certified, rather than just packages that say all
natural or organic," Mrs. Stewart said. "They are really under tight
regulations."

But The News found the following reasons that organic shoppers may not be
buying what they think they are:

•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.

•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.

•Vague rules leave much to interpretation, especially when it comes to
treatment of animals.

Graphic

Organic cheaters

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.

"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's heard that some people cut corners
and use ammonium nitrate – a banned fertilizer – that costs half as
much and is hard to detect.

"It's not fair to me," he said. "I'm trying to obey all the rules, and then
someone else cheats."

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.

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.

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.

Problems continue to crop up, but there's no way for the public to know how
many cheaters there are.

In April, The Dallas Morning News requested records of all violations
regarding individual farms, ranches and handlers. USDA officials said they
could not provide the documents for at least six months.

Officials said it would take that long to collect and organize the
information, though organic program rules require the USDA to make
violation information available to the public on the program's Web site.
But after four years, Ms. Robinson said her staff hasn't had time to make
that happen.

Missing information

The USDA does not know how many violations there are because it is missing
information from those who are supposed to be policing the industry at the
ground level.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Inspectors, organic farmers and certifiers themselves say they know some
cut corners.

Sam Welsch, owner of OneCert, a certification agency in Lincoln, Neb., said
some companies hire the cheapest inspectors, not the most qualified.

"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.

Big companies, such as Dean Foods, say they protect their consumers by
going with reliable, trusted certifiers.

"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.

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

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, the company's organic
programs coordinator.

The China connection

About 40 percent of organic farms and handlers are in foreign countries,
including 300 farms and processing plants in China.

Wal-Mart used some Chinese organic soybeans in its private-label soy milk.
They've also been in Silk, the popular soy milk brand from WhiteWave.

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 Mr.
Riddle, who said it's questionable that China could have transitioned
farmland that quickly.

China has a history of dousing fields with chemicals, researchers say.

Fred Gale, a senior USDA economist who has researched Chinese agriculture,
said it was "almost impossible to grow truly organic food in China."

"The water everywhere is polluted, and the soil is contaminated from
industry and mining, and the air is bad."

Despite concerns about China, Ms. Robinson said the USDA is only
responsible for approving the certifiers, whose job it is to check on
Chinese farms or handlers.

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.

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.

Mr. See, whose company certified Rizhao Huasai, said workers there signed
an affidavit stating they follow the rules, including those regarding
fertilizers.

Simply trusting the word of a farmer might not be an adequate failsafe,
said Mr. Gale, of the USDA.

In China, "there have always been laws and regulations on the books, but
you find a way around them," he said.

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.

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

Another farmer gave her an affidavit stating the land under inspection
hadn't been used for at least three years. Ms. Sakuyoshi found the
government official who stamped it and questioned its accuracy.

"He said, 'No. I don't know. I don't care. They just asked me to stamp it,
so I stamped it,' " she said.

Mr. See said American farmers are more skeptical of Chinese organics
because they're a competitive threat to domestic producers.

"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.

Vague rules

Even when standards are upheld, there are concerns throughout the industry
that rules are unclear.

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.

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 meet the requirements. Both have
already added pasture.

The debate triggered boycotts and led to a lengthy discussion during the
Dean Foods shareholders meeting in Dallas in May.

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 rule's precision.

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.

"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."

E-mail plavigne@dallasnews.com

CERTIFICATION Q&A

When can the USDA organic seal be used?

The label is allowed on raw food and packaged products that are "100
percent organic" or "organic" from certified producers.

"Organic" products allow for up to 5 percent nonorganic ingredients. This
is mainly involving materials used in processing packaged foods.

If the product is at least 70 percent organic, it cannot use the USDA seal,
but it can use the phrase "made with organic ingredients." If it is less
than 70 percent, but still has some organic content, then it can only use
the word "organic" to identify individual ingredients.

What is organic?

Organic food is grown without the use of most conventional pesticides,
fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients, or sewage sludge. It is also
not grown with bioengineering or ionizing radiation, USDA rules state.
Animals are not given antibiotics or growth hormones and are supposed to
have more access to the outdoors so that they can exhibit more of their
natural feeding behavior. The complete rules are lengthy and vary depending
on the type of operation.

Who says it's organic?

Declarations are made by a USDA-accredited certifier, whose name should be
on the product label or package.

Who are the certifiers?

The USDA has accredited 96 certifying agencies, 56 in the United States and
40 in foreign countries. Some are state agencies, such as the Texas
Department of Agriculture, but most are private companies.

What do certifiers do?

They hire inspectors, whether on staff or freelance, to visit organic
farms, ranches and processing plants and review operations, records and
workers. The inspectors report back to the certifying agent, which
determines whether the operation complies with the USDA organic rules.

COST COMPARISON

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.
Product         Organic price   Regular price
Raisin bran     29.3 cents per ounce    16 cents per ounce
Chicken breast  $8.99 per pound         $4.99 per pound
Strawberries    $4.99 per pound         $2.99 per pound
Baby food       21 cents per ounce      14 cents per ounce
Milk    $3.50 per half gallon   $2.47 per half gallon

THE INDUSTRY IN TEXAS

Texas leads the nation in certified organic cropland and pasture, with
about 313,000 acres, about the combined size of Dallas and Arlington. About
82 percent of that is pasture and rangeland.

More than 300 organic certificates have been issued to farms, ranches,
processing plants and retail stores in Texas.

Whole Foods, the nation's largest organic retail store, is headquartered in
Austin.

Texas is home to one of the nation's biggest organic companies, Dean Foods
in Dallas. The company's WhiteWave Foods subsidiary includes the
best-selling organic milk brands Horizon Organic and Silk soy milk. Its
competitor Aurora Organic Dairy of Boulder, Colo., operates a 4,400-cow
dairy farm in Dublin, Texas.

Texas Department of Agriculture is the state's largest certifier, granting
certificates to about 70 percent of the state's organic operations.

Texas adopted organics in 1988 when it established its own organic
standards. Other states, including California and Washington, did the same
before the federal regulations that went into effect in 2002.

POTENTIAL VIOLATORS

Here are a few examples of potential violations taken from hundreds of
certifier audits and complaints provided by the USDA. The agency has not
been able to provide records of confirmed violations.

A company in Italy that produces butter and cheese where dairy cows are
described eating organic feed not certified by the USDA

A certifier in Idaho that sent inspectors with little to no experience
certifying farms, where they overlooked potential violations

A California seed company listed using synthetic fungicide – not allowed
under USDA rules – in processing seeds

A brewery in Berkeley, Calif., distributing organic beer made without
organic hops

Beef from a Michigan farm sold as organic though it was processed at a
facility that was not organic

A Georgia company selling boxes of pecans labeled organic that contained a
mix of organic and nonorganic nuts

A company in Florida selling shrimp and fish labeled as USDA-certified
organic. No seafood is allowed to carry the organic label

A Michigan farm advertising beef and buffalo meat as organic, though the
farm was never certified