Organics, busted

Yet another “organic” company caught cheating

By Culinate staff

January 7, 2009

As organic farming and ranching have grown in recent years, so have incidents of “organic” producers cheating on the USDA’s organic rules. The latest? As reported in Plenty magazine, a supposedly organic fertilizer company has been busted for selling contaminated fertilizer. Especially in the wake of the melamine scandals, Marion Nestle is none too pleased, as she told the Huffington Post: “As I see it, trust in organic certification depends entirely on the integrity of the inspection system.” In other words, “organic” is just a word if there isn’t a viable system guaranteeing its credibility.