Can USDA Organic Be Trusted?

Over on the Facebook page of a (very) popular natural/organic food website, link to an article was posted with the title “USDA Clips Wings of Misleading Organic Marketers.“

Comments ensued on the article wondering “Can we trust USDA Organic?”

The story: The Cornucopia Institue has been, for a couple years, working with the USDA National Organic Program, to get companies to not use the name “organic” in their name of their packaging unless the product contains enough organic content to bear the organic seal, not just those that are in the “made with organic” category (70% plus.) The USDA made an internal ruling to review these cases and be more strict about the use of the word “organic” in product names.

Just reading the title it sounds like there’s a rampant problem with organic fraud. (It didn’t help that the image the link pulled up was the organic seal.) Many people were questioning the validity of the USDA Organic seal, so, I wanted to take a moment to clear up a couple common misconceptions about organic.

Misconception: The USDA is in cahoots with corporations like Monsanto, thus USDA Organic can’t be trusted.
The NOP (National Organic Program) is one very small office inside the USDA. It doesn’t work with or answer to any other offices within the USDA. Because the regulations are set forth by the independent council of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the NOP doesn’t answer to anyone else inside the USDA, just the NOSB. NOP regulations are very specific, so there is little room for misinterpretation, corruption, or influence. If a company breaks the rules, they’re fined and/or stripped of their certification. Distrust of the (general offices of the) USDA to protect our food supply from GMOs and harmful pesticides would be the exact reason to choose organic.

Misconception: Oregon Tilth Organic, etc, is better than USDA Organic
Oregon Tilth, QAI, etc are all third-party certifiers under the National Organic Program. The USDA doesn’t actually go out and inspect farms or organic processing facilities–that’s the job of the third-party certifiers. Every USDA certified organic operation must have third-party certification. So, USDA organic and Oregon Tilth Organic are one and the same. Oregon Tilth answers to the USDA NOP. It’s all the same set of regulations.

That said, always look for the third-party certifier to verify that the company is truly USDA Organic and not just using the seal. If there is a question and you suspect organic fraud, you can always look up a company in the NOP database: http://apps.ams.usda.gov/nop/

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