Is it organic? Ground rules may be changing
IF A fruit or vegetable isn’t grown in dirt, can it be organic?
That’s the question roiling the world of organic farming, and the answer could redefine what it means to farm organically.
At issue is whether produce that relies solely on irrigation to deliver nutrients to plants can be certified organic in the US. And the National Organic Standards Board will get an earful on the topic at its meeting in St Louis this week.
On one side are the growing number of big and small growers raising fruits and vegetables in these soil-free systems. They say their production methods are no different from those of farmers who grow plants in dirt.
“Soil to me as a farmer means a nutrient-rich medium that contains biological processes, and that doesn’t have to be dirt,” said Marianne Cufone, an aquaponic farmer and the executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition.
Not so, say farmers who have spent years tending soil so that it produces the nutrients plants need. They argue that organic production is first and foremost about caring for the soil.
“Soil has always been the basis of organic production,” said Steve Sprinkel, an organic farmer in California. “The soil is alive and releasing micronutrients to plants that use their roots to scavenge and forage those things, and so taking care of the soil is the bedrock of organic farming.”
Sales of organic food in the US hit $40 billion last year. Keeping up with the demand is expensive, and financiers and entrepreneurs have started pouring money into these systems.
Whether the soil-free systems help bring down the price of organic products remains to be seen. Equipment like lighting and organic nutrients are expensive – soil growers count on their dirt to deliver some of those nutrients at no cost – and hydroponically and aquaponically grown fruits and vegetables usually are sold for the same price as organic produce grown in dirt.
“It’s like using an intravenous needle to administer exactly what we think the plant needs instead of allowing the plant to get what it needs in the amount it needs out of the ground,” said Dan Barber, a chef in New York.
In the end, the decision about whether these growing systems can continue to be certified falls to the United States Department of Agriculture. In 2010, the Organic Standards Board recommended that hydroponic systems be ruled ineligible for certification because they excluded “the soil-plant ecology intrinsic to organic farming systems”.
The USDA has not acted on the board’s recommendation, allowing organic certification of crops grown in hydroponic systems to continue. According to a survey this year, the number of hydroponic growers with organic certification dropped to 30, but there were 22 certified aquaponic growers and 69 certified operations growing plants in containers lined with things like peat moss and coconut husks that do not provide nutrients on their own.
“The recommendation did not adequately address the diversity of practices and systems in the industry,” Miles McEvoy, the official who oversees the USDA’s organic program, said in a statement.
McEvoy noted that the USDA had assigned a task force to report on current practices – but that group split into two camps, mirroring the current debate.
The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 states: “An organic plan shall contain provisions designed to foster soil fertility, primarily through the management of the organic content of the soil through proper tillage, crop rotation and manuring.”
“To me, it seems simple and always has been,” said Sam Welsch, CEO an organic certification business in Nebraska that has refused to certify hydroponic produce. “There are things the law and regulations require you to do to the soil that you cannot do in a hydroponic system.”