Two recent Washington Post reports by Peter Whoriskey have raised doubts about organic standards in the US.
The first article – Why your ‘organic’ milk may not be organic – accused the largest organic milk producer in the US, Aurora Organic Dairy, of disregarding USDA grazing requirements. The exposé found that rather than grazing daily on pasture as the organic law requires signs of grazing were sparse and ‘at no point was any more than 10% of the herd out’.
Whoriskey also pointed out in his article that farmers are allowed to hire and pay their own inspectors to certify them as USDA Organic and said that the USDA inspectors had carried out their annual audit of the dairy in November, well after grazing season, so weren’t in a position to know if the cows were being grazed appropriately.
But on the company’s website, the dairy’s founder and CEO Marc Peperzak hit back at the Whoriskey’s reports: “It is truly unfortunate that The Washington Post article disregards the plain language of the organic rules established under the National Organic Program and distorts Aurora’s rigorous production practices that offer our customers and consumers an important food choice.” He added that “the reporter’s bias led to several misstatements and omissions”.
Aurora Organic Dairy supplies private label organic milk to large retail chains including Walmart, Costco, Target.
A second article from Whoriskey – The labels said ‘organic.’ But these massive imports of corn and soybeans weren’t – reveals a shipment of 36 million pounds of soybeans was fraudulently sold in the US as ‘organic’.
“That switch — the addition of the ‘USDA Organic’ designation — boosted their value by approximately $4 million, creating a windfall for at least one company in the supply chain.”
“The cargo began as ordinary soybeans, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Like ordinary soybeans, they were fumigated with a pesticide. They were priced like ordinary soybeans, too. But by the time the 600-foot cargo ship carrying them to Stockton, Calif., arrived in December, the soybeans had been labeled ‘organic’, according to receipts, invoices and other shipping records,” writes Whoriskey. “That switch — the addition of the “USDA Organic” designation — boosted their value by approximately $4 million, creating a windfall for at least one company in the supply chain.”
According to the article, the broker for the soybeans claims they may have been provided with false certification documents and about 21 million pounds of the soybeans have already been distributed to customers in the US. The paper claims a similar situation has occurred with a further two grain shipments.
“The three shipments, each involving millions of pounds of ‘organic’ corn or soybeans, were large enough to constitute a meaningful proportion of the U.S. supply of those commodities. All three were presented as organic, despite evidence to the contrary. And all three hailed from Turkey, now one of the largest exporters of organic products to the United States, according to Foreign Agricultural Service statistics.”