The Failures of Organics: Part 2

The organics movement suffers from the same "true believer" mania that any "ism" does. I remember in college being served a veggie burger by a girlfriend. I took one bite of it and realized I was a born carnivore. But since then, I have come to realize that truly organic farming is not only a way to avoid chemical additives and carcinogens, but that organic food frequently tastes better.

Yet as has often been the case, the regulations promulgated by the government to bring order to a chaotic marketplace have been coopted by powerful lobbies. The Washington Post has highlighted how the USDA has succumbed to this lobbying by agri-businesses to relax standards, allow additives and substitutes, and permit farming methods that are antithetical to the concept of organic, and which trick consumers into paying up to twice the price for products they mistakenly believe are better than conventional ones.

One of the big problems with organic regulations is the spread of non-organic substitutes allowed in organic products. The intent under the original organics law in 2002 was to allow up to 5% of a USDA-certified organic product to be non-organic, provided it was approved by the National Organic Standards Board. The original list had 77 substances, and the goal was to reduce the list by requiring manufacturers to justify their inclusion every five years. To do so, companies had to prove there were no organic alternatives. Instead of shrinking the list, the NOSB has allowed it to swell to 245 additives. For example, grated organic cheese can contain wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops.

Other lapses in the original law include the USDA's decision to make the mandate for annual pesticide testing optional. We all know that optional regulations are ones honored mostly in their omission. Given the size of the organics market (current estimates are as large as $24bn), it's no wonder major food companies have taken control of or purchased outright most small, independent organic companies. Kraft owns Boca Foods, Kellogg owns Morningstar Farms, and Coke has 40% of Honest Tea, President Obama’s favorite organic beverage. Lobbying is a natural result of this situation. Organic infant formula labels trumpet the additives DHA and ARA, synthetic fatty acids that some studies claim help the growth of the nervous system in infants. Yet they are synthetics that don’t meet the organics standards, mostly because they are produced with a potential neurotoxin known as hexane. According to The Post article linked above, Deputy USDA administrator Barbara Robinson, who administers the organics program, overruled her staff's ban on the additives after being lobbied by William J. Friedman, a lawyer representing baby formula makers. Maryland-based Martek Biosciences, which produces the fatty acids used by formula companies, claims no hexane residue is present.

Other actions by Robinson include giving farmers permission to feed organic livestock non-organic fish meal, which may contain mercury and PCBs. The law requires animals slaughtered for organic meat be raised entirely on organic feed. You pay extra for that, but you're not getting it. Other problems with the program include the variability of testing companies. Farmers are pretty much driven to shop around among certification services, since there is so much fluctuation in what the different companies allow. Liquid fertilizer, for example, was never intended for organic farming because of it's juiced-up nitrogen levels, yet the fertilizer gives those who use it a huge advantage in turning out bigger yields. Another area of confusion is the requirement that animals be given access to pasture and not be kept strictly in feed lots. But without clear regulations specifying how MUCH access, the practical effect has been chickens raised indoors in coops that have doors to the outside, but no practical method for shooing the birds into the clean air.

Robinson and others on the board defend their actions as making the organics regulations "work in the real world." But without transparency and consistency, the potential for fraud and abuse is huge, with the result that consumers have yet to embrace "organic" and cling to the totally meaningless "natural." A worse combination of circumstances I can't imagine.

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