Peak Food - It's About Strategy
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 05.22.07
Organic Consumers Association has a newsletter out called Another Sneak Attack on Organic Standards: USDA to Allow More Conventional Ingredients in Organics in which they report that "The [US Department of Agriculture] has announced a controversial proposal, with absolutely no input from consumers, to allow 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the "USDA Organic" seal." It seems a sausage company wants to stuff non-organic casings with organic meat; and a beer company wants to make "organic" beer with non-organic hops (pictured). The public comment period is just one week. In one sense this is a simple labeling issue. The sausage company could reasonably call their product "sausage made with organic meat" instead of the simpler "organic sausage." The beer company could declare their product "made with organic rice" instead of "organic beer" This is a common strategy when necessary organic ingredients are problematic. The store shelves already hold corn chips with a banner label "Made With Organic Corn," for example. But, the literal approach to labeling doesn't make for nice clean tag lines in the ad copy when multiple ingredients are involved. And, it might be a problem to squeeze in all the words with a small container like a beer can.
Much more than just a labeling issue, it's also about roll-out strategy. The sausage company, on encountering the high prices for scarce, organic casings, could have worked quietly for a year or two to nurture a few organic suppliers, helping them to produce a competitive product under sole source contract, thereby nailing the "organic sausage" market with first in advantage. Same for the beer company. Maybe just such measures are underway, and the government advocacy approach is a bridge. Or not. The important point is that that organic food sales are increasing in the 20% per year range and all the planets have lined up to make it further accelerate (thanks to the Chinese melamine doping scheme, a romantic notion to fuel our cars with GM corn, and antibiotic-fed cattle raised near the spinach fields). The whole country is watching, and tasting, as we enter the era of "Peak Food." Expect a ton more petitions to the Ag Department.
Image credit:: Hop blossoms Brookston Beer Bulletin
I hate to say it, but I almost have a kneejerk bias against government ratings systems because of things like this.
You can't create a true sea change if the most trusted certification organization has allowed their standards to be diluted so that some companies can make "mostly" organic products as opposed to innovating truly organic methods of production.
I think the answer is not in labeling inorganic chemicals organic, but in creating another labeling system that states the difference between truly organic products and products that are not actually organic, but are produced and processed sustainably and have been proven to contain no harmful substances. Or if they are toxic in any way (as naturally occurring chemicals sometimes are) they must be in safe doses and must be chemicals that can be processed by the environment.
Then again I'm no policymaker/scientist/farmer/sausage maker.
Almost organic: "Good enough for government work."
The sole purpose of this latest act of terrorism is profit.
Is there any benefit to labeling a non-organic product as organic other than profit? ANY????
No.
will people complain or just accept the little goodness stamp of approval?
education is key to policy, the standards must begin by mandatory training for the job of EPA, USDA or any agency in charge of feeding the public, caring for the consumer and policing the results.
no self respecting functionary would dare bypass minimum standards if he knew the actual consequences of each proposed product...or would he?
a barrage of lobbyists from larger corporations confuse the poor policy makers, and the road to insolvency is paved with the deception of others.
back to the victory gardens and community projects like in Denmark and Holland, at least you know what you grow. Please encourage school gardens and similar endeavors...the demand will sway the supply side.