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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] USDA Report Indicates American Organic Farmers Being Sold Out
  • Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:12:41 -0600


USDA Report Indicates American Organic Farmers Being Sold Out
http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/06/usda-report-indicates-american-organic-far
mers-being-sold-out/#more-1506
* Press Release
Domestic Producers Hurt by Growing Corporate Imports
The Cornucopia Institute, June 16, 2009
Straight to the Source

On the heels of the release of The Cornucopia Institute's study exposing
the import-dependent organic soy industry, a report by the United States
Department of Agriculture substantiates Cornucopia's findings. Using
different research methods, the two reports reach similar conclusions:
organic manufacturers and farmers are facing escalating competition from
large conventional food manufacturers entering the organic market, and
companies are increasingly looking to China and other countries to import
organic foods and ingredients.

"Two of the major findings of the USDA report-conventional food
corporations taking over successful independent organic companies, and
increasing dependence on imports-are not unrelated," suggests Charlotte
Vallaeys, Farm and Food Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute and
primary author of the organization's study Behind the Bean: The Heroes and
Charlatans of the Organic Soy Industry. The USDA report, Emerging Issues in
the U.S. Organic Industry, was released earlier this month.

"When agribusiness corporations enter the organic market, like Dean Foods
when it bought the Silk soymilk brand from a pioneering independent
company, they sometimes look abroad for cheaper imports or abandon organics
altogether, rather than maintain their commitment to supporting domestic
organic farmers," Vallaeys adds. "The handlers mentioned in the USDA report
that now complain of shortages of domestically grown organic crops are
therefore by no means innocent victims of forces beyond their control, but
rather helped create these shortages by opting for cheaper organic imports
instead of supporting domestic farmers with sustainable prices."

According to the USDA's report U.S. organic soybean production started
declining several years ago despite steeply increasing demand for organic
feed grains and consumer products such as soymilk. "As the number of
organic soybean producers has increased worldwide, U.S. producers have
faced increased competition for the domestic market," concludes Catherine
Greene, USDA economist and lead author of the USDA report.

Cornucopia contends that the purported shortage of organic soybeans in the
United States is not a legitimate excuse for companies to import cheap
crops from China or abandon organic ingredient sourcing altogether. "Our
research reveals that there are many highly committed organic companies
that are offering products made with American-grown soybeans," says
Vallaeys. Examples are Eden Foods, which continues its long-standing
relationships with domestic farmers who grow organic soybeans, and new
market players like Vermont Soy that are actively engaged in recruiting
existing local organic farmers to grow soybeans.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are companies like Dean Foods, a
leading agribusiness involved mainly in dairy, which markets Silk soymilk.
When Dean Foods first acquired the Silk brand, American farmers were eager
to ramp up domestic production of organic soybeans for their soymilk.
According to Cornucopia's report, Dean Foods quickly dashed their hopes,
telling multiple midwestern farmers and farmer cooperatives that they had
to match the rock-bottom prices of Chinese organic soybeans-a price they
simply could not meet. So Dean Foods bought Chinese soybeans for years,
building its commanding industry market share, before substantially
decreasing its support of organic agriculture altogether. Today, few Silk
products are certified organic and some are even processed with toxic
chemicals and labeled "natural."

"What comes first, the organic chicken or the organic egg?" asks Mark
Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute. "Companies
like Dean Foods complain that there aren't enough organic soybeans grown in
the U.S., yet they took an active role in creating this shortage by
refusing to work with American farmers when they had the chance."

Merle Kramer, a marketer for the Midwestern Organic Farmers Cooperative,
based in Michigan, laments: "Dean Foods had the opportunity to push organic
and sustainable agriculture to incredible heights of production by working
with North American farmers and traders to get more land in organic
production, but what they did was pit cheap foreign soybeans against the
U.S. organic farmer, taking away any attraction for conventional farmers to
make the move into sustainable agriculture."

The USDA report concludes, "Despite the potential for organic agriculture
to improve the environmental performance of U.S. agriculture, the national
standard is having only a modest impact on environmental externalities
caused by conventional production methods because the organic adoption rate
is so low." In other words, our country could be reducing pesticide
contamination of surface- and groundwater, soil erosion, loss of wildlife,
and other negative impacts on the environment, but greed appears to have
stunted the growth of domestic organic agriculture.

As a by-product of its research, Cornucopia also creates scorecards that
rate organic dairy and soy foods brands based on their production practices
and ethical values. Consumers who buy organic, in part because they want
their purchases to benefit domestic farmers and the American environment,
may not realize that leading brands are importing from countries with
dubious food safety and organic integrity, or environmental issues, like
China, Brazil, and India.

"The Cornucopia Institute's goal is to help consumers differentiate between
the brands that are truly committed to organic values, from those that
aren't," says Kastel. "We encourage consumers to use the scorecards when
voting in the marketplace, and to support the companies that buy
American-grown organic soybeans."





  • [Livingontheland] USDA Report Indicates American Organic Farmers Being Sold Out, Tradingpost, 06/20/2009

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