permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Farmer Greg wrote:
> All,
>
> I was just  asked the following question and although I have wondered 
> this myself I don't have an answer for her.  Any ideas?
>
>
> > Lately, I have been seeing produce labeled "organic" from Mexico and 
> > Chile (predominantly).  Realizing that the U.S. government is very 
> > lax in policing produce in the states and imported, unlike meats, do 
> > you know if there are any guarantees the produce from other 
> > countries is, in fact, organic?

Here's a reply from the sanet list:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Is it really organic???
Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 08:30:29 -0500
From: Joe Riemann <riem0016@UMN.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Yep. I just had a call about this. I deal with the organic certification
for the Wedge Food Co-op and Warehouse. We are required to keep all
certificates for organic product, anything coming from outside the U.S.
must say on the certificate that the product is inspected to meet NOP
standards. I had a member/customer ask about whether or not chilean organic
products could be trusted. I said, while it's certainly customer choice to
buy imported products (due to the obvious sustainability issues), we have
no reason to suspect that the product is NOT certified to meet U.S.
standards.

Joe