Certified organic

The USDA organic standards went into effect five years ago. What does “organic” mean to us now?

By Nancy Schatz Alton

June 4, 2007

Before Minnesotan Teresa Marchek began buying organic food two years ago, she tended to equate “organic” with “earthy” and “crunchy.” Pregnant with her second child and working as an internal consultant for Capella University, Marchek didn’t feel she had the time to ponder the benefits of organic food.

The age of instant information, though, had already primed Marchek to become an organic consumer. Perhaps it was a co-worker extolling the virtues of the vegetables she got from her community-supported-agriculture (CSA) farm. Or perhaps it was a quick read of a newspaper article that listed the Environmental Working Group’s “dirty dozen,” a list of 12 fruits and vegetables with the worst pesticide residue.

How organic is the USDA’s organic seal?

Whatever the catalyst, Marchek realized that the idea of buying organic was more complex than the little green seal of organic approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) implied. She found herself, tentatively, buying organic food. Today she keeps a mental list of items that only enter her shopping cart if they are grown organically: eggs, grapes, berries, and frozen waffles. Usually she prefers to buy organic milk, yogurt, hot dogs, peanut butter, poultry, and snacks for her children, but with all other food items, she fluctuates between buying organic and non-organic items, mostly choosing non-organic brands.

“There are things that I buy not (just) because they are organic. I really believe in supporting the (sustainable) community,” Marchek says. “We just needed to put our money where our mouth is. You hear how hideous an industrial chicken farm is. If I believe it’s not appropriate, I better spend the extra $1.50 for the eggs.”

Plenty of other Americans are starting to think like Marchek. According to the National Marketing Institute (NMI) 2005 Health and Wellness Trends study, 56 percent of consumers buy organic products at least occasionally. The Hartman Group’s 2006 organic consumer survey lists an even higher statistic, stating 73 percent of consumers occasionally bought organic in 2005.

There’s no denying that what began as a small agricultural movement some four decades ago has blossomed into a viable national industry. According to the NMI, the U.S. organic industry did $15 billion in sales in 2005; by 2009, that figure could reach $20 billion.

Although they represent just 2.5 percent of all the foods and beverages sold in the U.S., organics are quickly becoming part of the mainstream. Wal-Mart’s 2006 organic initiative promised not only more organic foods on its shelves but also a maximum price markup of just 10 percent over its conventional foods. (The company has had difficulty making good on this promise, but hasn’t reneged yet.) And there is certified organic farmland in every state, although not as much as you might think.

With growth, of course, comes change. The USDA’s organic standards, certifying all organic food sold in the U.S., have been in effect since 2002. In the five years since then, the USDA standards have both evolved and been challenged. Producers and marketers of organics have changed. And so have consumer attitudes.

The evolution of the standards

An apple sporting a USDA certified-organic label was grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. The apple’s seeds were not genetically modified (GM), nor were the seeds or the apple itself treated with irradiation. The fertilizer used on the apple orchard contained no sewage sludge. The apple grower had to keep meticulous farming records. And a USDA-accredited certification agency can visit the orchard at any moment to inspect paperwork and farmland.

Behind that small seal is a long history. Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990, giving the USDA the task of developing national standards for organically produced agricultural products. From this sprang the National Organic Program (NOP), which is officially a marketing program housed within the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. Over a 12-year period, the NOP developed national organic standards and a certification program based on recommendations from a 15-member National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).

Behind the whole process of creating organic certification was a veritable army of concerned citizens. Those citizens were outraged when the NOP released its first suggested rules for organic agriculture, which allowed the use of GM seeds, irradiation, and sewage sludge on organic crops. The resulting hue and cry was so loud that the NOP backed down, and started over.

The National Organic Program oversees the country’s organic-certification standards.

These activist citizen groups include the Center for Food Safety, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Organic Trade Association (OTA). “The Organic Trade Association formed 21 years ago as a group of individuals who were interested in building the organic system long before there was a rule,” says Caren Wilcox, OTA’s executive director. Today, says Wilcox, the OTA has more than 1,500 members, ranging from farmers to retailers to ordinary consumers.

All of these organizations served as watchdogs while the organic standards took shape, and they continue to stand guard while the standards grow and evolve in a changing organics culture. They alert their members and the public to any concerns that crop up, and make sure their collective voices are heard before the NOSB, the USDA, and Congress.

Perhaps the most significant change since the national organic movement began is the emergence of “big” organics. Cascadian Farm, for example, was started by Gene Kahn in 1972 in Washington state. He recalls driving his produce in from his farm in the upper Skagit Valley to a natural-foods consumer co-op in the Seattle area. By the late 1980s, Cascadian Farm had contracted with other Pacific Northwest farmers to keep pace with demand. In 1990, Welch’s National Grape Cooperative purchased Cascadian Farm. In 1998, it became part of Small Planet Foods; in 2000, General Mills bought it. Now Kahn, the former small-scale farmer, is vice president of sustainable development for General Mills.