The organic food industry is a
booming business. Certified organic products typically have
a higher price point and may even be smaller in size or
different in taste. But what exactly does organic
mean? Regulations vary from country to country. But
according to the USDA, "organic" by itself isn't necessarily a
health claim. It just means the food was produced using organic
methods. These methods include a list of federal standards
addressing things like soil fertility, pest and weed
control, and animal grazing practices. But most people aren't actually
aware of what it takes for a product to receive the USDA
Organic seal. In 2014, brand consultancy BFG surveyed 300
shoppers. 70% purchased organic food and only 20% could define
organic. Despite a lack of knowledge,
demand for organic food is at a record high among consumers. And
it's only going up. U.S. organic sales surged in 2020, jumping by
12.4% to $61.9 billion. With consumers being more health
conscious than ever, they're willing to pay more for what
they perceive as better, even if they're not quite sure that it
is. In 2018, organic food and
beverage items cost an average 24 cents more than conventional
food. Some shoppers are doubtful of U.S. organic food claims.
Several investigations over the years uncovering organic label
fraud have exacerbated consumer suspicion. The USDA's National
Organic program, or NOP, has been stepping up on
investigations and enforcement, suspending or revoking 370
operations in the U.S. in 2020 alone, but some say it's not
enough. On the fraud issue, they have
not been the ones that have been in the forefront. They're
supposed to be preventing fraud by the enforcement of the rules
a,nd time and time again, the horse is long out of the barn
before the National Organic Program is even aware that
there's a problem. Despite efforts to reduce fraud
amid rising demand, any consumers still question: are
organic food safer? Are the more nutritious? And are they worth
the price? Organic farming was first
introduced as a concept called humus farming in the early 20th
century, in order to address soil erosion and depletion.
These practices included composting, rotating crops and
applying animal manure. During World War II, food shortages
accelerated agricultural advances by improving
mechanization, fertilization and pesticides. Synthetic
fertilizers were affordably produced, and machineries were
quickly replacing manual labor. The term "organic" was coined in
1940 by Lord Northbourne in his book "Look to the Land," where
he talked about taking a natural and ecological approach to
farming. He drew inspiration from Sir Albert Howard, whose
decades of research led him to the concept that using waste
material was vital for soil health. The Industrial Revolution helped
the farmer far more with a better plow and with a tractor
and an engine instead of a horse drawn. And then we move to how
do we package and salvage and save the stuff for longer post
World War TII. And oh, look at these chemicals, they work to
decimate a jungle, what could a small amount of that do on a
field, you know, that kind of thing. So, and we saw how great
these chemicals were. But then we realized somewhere along the
line probably in the 60s, I'm assuming and into the 70s that
hey, maybe we're doing detriment to ourselves. By the 1970s, environmental
concerns increased, and consumers began to demand more
sustainable produce. In response, Congress passed the
Organic Foods Production Act in 1990 to develop a national
standard for organic food and fiber production. The final
rules were written and implemented in Fall 2002. This
regulation defines organic agriculture as an "ecological
production management system that promotes and enhances
biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity." Organic isn't a health claim,
it's simply a labeling term that indicates the food has been
grown following the federal guidelines the OFPA. According
to the USDA, organic farming entails the use of manures crop
rotations, biological control ,and emphasis on biodiversity,
the use of rotational grazing, a reduction and elimination of
synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and a focus on
renewable resources. As for livestock and poultry, the
standards require that animals have access to the outdoors year
round, fed 100% organic feed and not administered antibiotics or
hormones. Consumers looking to shop organic may look for the
USDA seal of approval. So let's talk about the
different kinds of labeling categories. You can have a 100%
organic product. So for example, that organic apple that you take
off the shelf and eat that's 100% organic. You can also have
products that are 95% or more organic composition. And a
product needs to have more than 95% in order to carry that USDA
seal. And so you might be talking about, for example, a
granola bar that has different kinds of ingredients in it. If
more than 95% of those ingredients are organic, it can
use the organic seal. There's also a made with organic
category. So for example macaroni and cheese, it may be
that the cheese or the macaroni or some other component of a
product is organic, but the rest of the product is not. Multi-ingredient products with
less than 70% certified organic content cannot use the organic
seal or use the word "organic" on the front of the food
package. However, they can list certified organic ingredients in
the ingredient list and the percentage of organic
ingredients. Consumer demand for organic
products is rising quickly, showing double digit growth over
the past decade in the U.S. As of February 2021, organic
products in the U.S. can be found in nearly 20,000 natural
food stores and nearly 75% of conventional grocery stores. And
organic sales account for 4% of total US food sales. The booming organic market in
the U.S. can be attributed to a few things, mainly the declining
price gap between organic and conventional products. In 2018,
organic food and beverage items cost an average of 24 cents more
than conventional food. That was down from 27 cents in 2014, a
nearly 2% drop. Organic produce seems to be
getting cheaper for a number of reasons. For one, arising
dependency on fossil resources is causing the price of
conventional foods to increase while government subsidies keep
the prices artificially low. And more private label retailers are
getting in organic foods, creating a downward pressure in
the industry to reduce prices. There are tons of reasons why
organic food is more expensive in the first place. But it all
boils down to the fact that it costs more to produce. It takes
more money and labor to adhere to the USDA strict standards
regarding production, handling, labeling and storing. Not to
mention demand beats out supply. Farmers are just not that
interested in the organic standard. They don't they see
higher land costs, higher labor costs, and so not too many make
the make the switch and that restricts the supply of organic
and that's why the price is so high. Over the past decade, shoppers
have become increasingly more mindful of their health and
COVID-19 has accelerated those trends. According to a 2020
survey.,54% of all consumers cared more about the helpfulness
of their food and beverage choices in 2020 than they did in
2010. Some health conscious consumers gravitate toward
organic over conventional products due to concerns about
highly processed foods, artificial ingredients and the
effects of pesticides, hormones and antibiotics. According to a study by Pew
Research, 76% of adults surveyed bought organic foods for their
health value, followed by environmental concerns at 33%
and convenience at 22%. But there is conflicting data about
whether or not organic foods are healthier or safer. Take for
instance pesticide residue. The consumption of pesticide
contaminated food is a major source of human pesticide
exposure. And according to a 2017 review in Environmental
Health, our current levels of exposure to pesticides can lead
to adverse effects on children's cognitive development. In adults
,exposure to pesticides may also lead to the development of
Parkinson's disease, fertility issues and cognitive decline. It
also mentioned that antibiotics used in the conventional animal
production is a key driver of antibiotic resistance in
society. The average conventional apple
in the United States today contains about four different
pesticide residues. And science science is is not at the stage
where we can say with certainty what daily exposures to four or
five pesticides from food is doing to our children. But there
is a broad consensus that it's probably not doing anything
helpful. However, there is some data that
says otherwise. Organic does not mean that the produce is grown
without any pesticides. A few naturally occurring pesticides
are approved by the USDA. Research in 2005, at the
University of California suggests that the negative
public perception of pesticides is overblown, and that the
pesticide residue in both organic and conventional crops
are too low to have any adverse effects on health. Maybe conventional food has a
very low exposure for pesticide residue, and it's not a problem.
But maybe organic food has an exposure level that's even
lower. So it's not a problem either. I conclude that both are
safe. And you should be making your your food choice on on the
basis of something more substantial. While there's a lot of
discrepancy about whether organic is safer and healthier
long term, many agree that organic food isn't better in
terms of nutritional value, the Environmental Health review
concluded that there was no significant difference in
nutrition between organic and conventional crops. An orange that's grown
conventionally and an orange that's grown organically. I
think they're gonna have the same vitamins in them, I really
do. I've been an orange grower all my life. And we haven't
changed much from when when dad did it. Organic food is not healthier or
safer for you. Whether it's organically grown or
conventionally grown, it's going to have the same nutrient
content. Now there are situations where you may find an
organic orange, say may have 10 million more milligrams of say
vitamin C, and it's theoretically. It means
absolutely nothing to you as far as your health goes, because of
the conventional orange let's say has 95 milligrams of vitamin
C in it. And let's say organically grown or you may
have 110 milligrams, 105 milligrams of vitamin C. Well
your body doesn't need either one of them, it only needs about
35 milligrams. You don't it need anywhere. It's like driving down
the road and you have a full tank of gas and you see a gas
station and you say, oh I'm going to pull over and get more
gas. Well it's no point because your gas tank's full. Some studies conclude that there
simply isn't enough strong evidence. Many people ask me is organic
food more nutritious than conventional food? Obviously,
that's a complex question. And it varies between say animal
products like meat, milk and eggs, and fruits and vegetables,
or grains. But in general, for all plant based foods, organic
food has between 20-25% higher levels of what's called
antioxidants. Now on the animal side of agriculture, which is
you know, roughly half the calories that the typical
American consumes in a day. The biggest differences with organic
farming are in the fatty acid profile in meat and eggs, and
milk and dairy products. And these differences are
significant. At the height of the pandemic
organic grains like rice and pasta are flying off the
shelves, mainly due to their long shelf life. Harvesting and
selling organic grains is big business. It demands a higher
price because it costs more to produce To earn the National Organic
seal, the plants cannot have been genetically modified, and
they must be grown without the help of unauthorized
fertilizers, weed killers or pesticides. But who's verifying
this? There are about 75 third-party
agencies certified by the USDA to inspect over 16,000 organic
farms in the U.S. These private inspectors perform annual audits
that include questioning, reviewing documents and
examining records. But rarely does it mean actually testing
the soil or produce certifying agents are only required to test
5% of their total operations per year. This process largely
relies on the honor system in an ethical seller can pass off
cheaper commercial round green for the more expensive organic
kind and make a huge profit. And some are doing just that. In 2017, a Washington Post
investigation revealed that non-organic soy and corn labeled
as organic was flooding the U.S. About 36 million pounds of
conventional soybeans imported from Ukraine and Turkey were
originally priced like regular soy beans, but by the time they
reached California, they had been labeled as organic,
boosting their value by $4 million. 61-year-old Randy Constant was
sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for the largest organic
fraud case in U.S. history. However, there is a broad
consensus that imported produce is more likely to be fraudulent
than domestic grown crops. The organic fraud in grains
started cause of the high demand for especially eggs and meat and
the fact that domestic production could not keep up
with the demand. They started looking overseas and the first
place that they are went that had open holes was the Ukrainian
and the Black Sea region has continually been a problematic
area because of lacks of oversight. The rapid growth of the organic
food market, higher potential for fraud and increased funding
has allowed the NOP to significantly increase its
enforcement staff over the past year. In February 2020, the NOP
launched an online complaint portal to make it easier for
consumers to file complaints. There were 676 operations in 45
countries in 2020, that were suspended or revoked, which is
lower than the 722 suspended or revoked operations in 2019. John
Bobbe, former executive director of OFARM, says they could be
doing more. If the USDA or NOP comes across
a fraudulent shipment, they have no authority to stop it. They
were given a clean slate with money to draft new rules with
stronger enforcement, they were given the authority. So what did
they do? They spent the money on the low fruit, the easy stuff;
upgrading their organic integrity database. We have caught bad guys, both
domestically in the United States and overseas. So as an
example, recently, we worked closely with Customs and Border
Protection, which is the federal agency that protects imports to
block incoming shipment of, of cooking oil and oil that was
shipped by a suspended operation. And so that's an
example of how we have blocked fraud coming into the United
States. And there have been some very public stories of organic
fraud where people in the United States have paid fines or gone
to jail by defrauding the American public. Again, our job
is to make sure organic is a choice that can be trusted by
consumers across the country. Despite a lack of significant
data, experts say the organic food industry is here to stay.
The overall consensus from farmers and experts is to put
less focus on the USDA Organic seal, and instead, eat more
fruits and veggies from your The problem isn't the food in
the marketplace. It's the fact local farmer. that not enough Americans
purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. As I've said, we
only consume 1/10 of fresh fruits and vegetables that we
should be consuming for for dietary health. Do I think everybody should
purchase organic over conventional? I think everybody
should eat fruits and vegetables from their backyard, meaning the
farm that's closest to you support your local farmers. Eat
as much as you can locally. And then enjoy what you want
globally.
