IS FOOD ORGANIC JUST BECAUSE THE LABEL SAYS SO?

Food bearing the label “organic” on supermarket shelves sometimes travels long distances to get there. Why is that? “Many foods are in great demand all year round but can’t be grown in every country in every season,” says Oliver Huizinga, head of food research at the consumer-protection organization Foodwatch. “It’s not an issue as long as the food actually comes from organic farms and orchards,” he says. But does it? In the United States, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established a set of organic guidelines to regulate animal husbandry, soil quality, pest and weed control, and the usage of additives. Produce can be called organic if it was “grown on soil that has had no prohibited substances applied for three years prior to harvest.” That includes most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. In the case of organic meat, the animals must have been raised “in living conditions in keeping with their natural behavior, fed 100% organic feed and forage, and not administered antibiotics or hormones.” The USDA says it inspects every certified organic grower in the United States at least once a year and investigates alleged violations. Food deemed to have met the requirements is awarded the seal “USDA Organic.” Through the National Organic Program the agency also accredits some 80 third-party organizations that it calls “certifiers.” They seek to verify the claims of more than 37,000 organic enterprises around the world. The USDA has touted its robust system for guarding against fraud, but critics see things differently. According to an investigative report in The Washington Post, “Farmers overseas hire their own inspection companies, most inspections are announced days or weeks in advance, and testing for pesticides is the exception rather than the rule.” As one organic spokesperson reveals: “The U.S. market is the easiest for potentially fraudulent organic products to penetrate because the chances of getting caught here are not very high.” Another industry insider says: “All you have to do is spray at the right time to escape detection. The farmers use pesticides in such a way that they are undetectable a short time later.” If farmers don’t abide by domestic laws, it’s a long shot to expect them to obey U.S. organic laws if circumventing them is easy.