Features

Organic food could become cheaper and more widely available now that uniform federal organic standards, a decade in the making, have finally become law. The standards are expected to draw big growers into the small but growing market. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, released Wednesday, are the result of years of false starts and intense lobbying. Foods that meet the new standards will bear a seal that reads “USDA Organic.” 

“It’s going to mean an additional standard of integrity in the marketplace and the ability to move product from state to state and country to country,” said Ray Green, organic program manager for California’s Department of Agriculture. 

“In terms of the old supply and demand thing, it’s going to create more integrity, consumer confidence and legitimacy, and that will fuel growth.” 

Organic growers in California, who have led the nation in the push to eliminate pesticides and other manmade chemicals from the food supply, were concerned that a weak federal standard would dilute the power of the state’s tough organic standards.  

But the final version of the federal rules for growers, processors and retailers turned out to be equally tough, if not more so in some areas. 

“As long as the federal law respects our chosen third-party certifiers, I don’t have a problem with it,” said Jonathan Steinberg, co-owner of Route 1 Farms in Santa Cruz. “We’re long-term organic growers. We’ve been in this 22 years. It probably won’t affect the way I grow much, but it’ll be interesting to see if it affects my costs and if I see more competition.” 

The federal standard also is the culmination of an effort begun in 1973, when a small cooperative, California Certified Organic Farmers, began inspecting and certifying each other’s farming methods and setting standards for just what “organic” means. 

The USDA’s first effort at setting national rules generated overwhelming objections from consumers, farmers and others, since it would have included genetically modified products, irradiated food and even sewage sludge as fertilizer. 

The final version bans genetic engineering or irradiation of organic products, which must be grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. The rules also govern such things as composting temperatures and feed for livestock being raised organically. 

To use the “organic” label in supermarkets, an organic farm or processing plant must pay an independent certifier – not a government agent – to inspect its operation. Until now, farms and plants that touted themselves as organic did not have to be certified. 

In California, “organic” farms and plants only had to register with the state and promise to comply with the rules, but state inspectors rarely checked to see if they were being followed. Now, any farm or business producing more than $5,000 in products annually must get certified each year. 

“I think it’s a great thing,” Green said. “The consumer will know that when they buy organic, they get what they pay for.” 

Of the 10,000 farms nationwide that claim to be organic, fewer than 7,000 are approved by the 88 different state or private certifying agencies around the country. Nineteen states have no regulations for organic farming. Eleven others have production standards but no certification process for ensuring that farmers comply with them. 

Consumers can expect to see an increase in organic processed products, since companies now know that if they take the extra effort to produce organic foods, they can get premium prices selling with the “organic” label anywhere in the United States, said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation in Santa Cruz. 

“Why we have been so supportive of this and working so hard for so long is it’s consumer friendly,” he said. “There’s finally a labeled product that allows consumers the right to know how their food is grown and processed.” 

The new rules may make organic farming and processing more attractive to bigger growers, especially because supermarkets now have a standard for labeling and marketing their organic foods. And having large-scale producers involved could drive prices down. 

“I think, because they’re federal, we’ll see more of the large retailers getting into organics,” said Brian Leahy, the executive director of CCOF, which inspects operations throughout the state. “I think we’ll see prices getting closer to conventional.” 

Bu Nygrens, the purchasing manager for Veritable Vegetable, a San Francisco wholesaler, said the new rules will mean less work for her company, which has supplied organic fruit and vegetables to specialty supermarkets since 1978. 

Without the federal standard, “individual companies would have to do their own investigation not only of growers and shippers, but evaluating certification industries and finding out what their standards are,” she said. 

“We’re really looking forward to accreditation of growers by a third party and harmonizing export and import, so we don’t have to ask the same questions over and over.”