Demystifying Organics

Organic agriculture:

• is a way of farming in harmony with nature and encourages reduction in off-farm inputs thereby consuming less of the world's resources to produce food.
• has, as a goal, the improvement of the ecosystems in which food and fibre are produced.
• is committed to ensuring that livestock are able to live out their lives with access to adequate and good quality food, are able to socialise normally, do not damage aquatic life through unrestricted access to riparian areas, and are slaughtered in the most humane manner possible.
• can be practised anywhere by anyone who may or may not label it "organic".
• does not claim to produce food free of contaminants - all organic food is produced on this earth, no part of which has escaped damage from chemical agriculture and other industrial processes.
• it will, however, leave that piece of land or group of animals better off than if farmed following chemical-dependent agriculture - organic practices are hope for the future.

Certification:

• is necessary when the food (or fibre) producer is distant from those who consume the products of a given farm - it stands in place of a relationship of trust and knowledge that can exist between a farm and the community it serves when there is a genuine geographical and personal connection.
• involves an independent, contracted inspector (verification officer) who visits the farm site, assesses the health of livestock, soil, and crops; assesses the presence of habitat for wildlife and beneficial insects; inspects storage buildings and barns to ensure that prohibited materials are not kept or used on site; reviews documents to determine if the volume of product going to market is in keeping with the production capacity of the farm (audit); and reviews general compliance with the organic standards used by the contracting certification body (CB).
• is the responsibility of a CB's Certification Committee which does not have direct contact with the applicant (arms length, aka "third party"), reviews the application documents as well as the verification officer's report and determines if the applicant is in full compliance with the standards.
• can involve the use of conditional certificates which cover a shorter term than the usual year long certificate term and which entail the fulfilment of a set of conditions which will enable the applicant to come into full compliance with the standards.
• will be denied to any applicant if there is evidence that they are contravening fundamental aspects of organic management practices.

Semantics:

• In Canada, anyone can use the term organic on their product. If the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had substantially more staff, they might be able to monitor and act upon all false labelling as it occurs - however, this legal protection is not specific to the term organic but covers truth in labelling issues.
• Canada does have a national organic standard which does not, to date, have a mechanism for certification. It is currently undergoing a major revision and may or may not become mandatory. If it became mandatory all certified organic enterprises within Canada would have to be certified to that standard. The Canadian General Standards Board administers (but does not certify) the national organic standard.
• In the United States (from which most of our organic food comes), as of Oct. 21st, 2002, the use of the term organic on any product means that it is certified by an independent, third party - at least in law and in theory. There was an 18 month transition period allowed for all US certification bodies to come into compliance with the "National Organic Program" (NOP) which is administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
• The USDA NOP is mandatory and any product sold in the USA, no matter what its country of origin must either be certified by a USDA accredited CB or be certified to a standard which has undergone a formal recognition process with the USDA.

Accreditation:

• The processes used by CBs to certify enterprises is reviewed for accuracy and appropriateness - this is called accreditation. In BC this accreditation is done by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Other related tidbits:

• BC has 14 certification bodies, mostly geographically based. All BC CBs use the COABC (Certified Organic Associations of BC) Certified Organic Management Standards. Some certify additionally with Demeter for verification of adherence to biodynamic principles. The farms, processors and handlers/distributors certified by each CB are listed on the COABC Website: www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca as are the Standards to which they are all certified. COABC Standards require a 36 month period of transition from the last application of prohibited substances for land used for agricultural products.
• There are reputable and not so reputable CBs all over the world. The country of origin is not a guarantee that the certification process is of any given quality - the quality is a factor of the actual set of standards, the certification process and the accreditation of the certification organization.
• "Grown (or processed) in accordance with the California Organic Food Act of 1990" is not a claim of certification - which is why many question this claim. This Act requires all enterprises in California selling product as organic to "register" with the County Agricultural Commissioner. Where the credibility of this act is undermined is the fact that it allows for practices that would not be allowed in any organic standard in addition to the fact that there is no verification of the claim of organic - it is simply an act of submitting paper to the a government bureaucrat. California just passed the California Organic Product Act of 2003 which continues to require registration but, in keeping with the mandatory NOP, requires certification as well - a step in the right direction.

And something to think about:

Long distance transportation of food is the fastest growing and largest contributor to greenhouse gases (and climate instability) in many places around the world. The irony is that all food requires stable climate conditions for long term production viability..... Market offerings have shaped consuming habits - thus "consumers" have the power to shift food systems back to more local production and consumption. For more information on this and related topics, see the Worldwatch Institute website and read an overview of their paper entitled "Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market" (#163) and the more disturbing "The Anatomy of Resource Wars" (#162) which traces the connection between our global consuming habits (mostly "first world") and political upheaval (including lengthy and ongoing civil wars mostly in the "third world").