GREENFIELD, Mass. (July 4, 2009) — The Organic Trade Association (OTA) and its members are organic advocates. We believe in, support, and advocate for the integrity of the organic label and strict enforcement of federal organic standards because this is fundamental to living up to the contract with consumers who choose or who are considering choosing organic products.

If it meant more money for my business I would applaud, too, but let's not kid ourselves. Let's pull the wool over our own eyes as the USDA and the OTA love to do.

Look at that first statement above:
We believe in, support, and advocate for the integrity of the organic label and strict enforcement of federal organic standards
Did you catch that careful parsing? The OTA does not believe in, support or advocate for organic foods. Nope. They believe in, support, and advocate for the integrity of the organic label.

Big difference. Huge difference because what you don't know is that the OTA has actively weakened the organic labeling standards so that "conventional" foods can be sold as organic. There is a lot of money to be made? How much? Consider that organic foods has been the biggest growth market this year. Again.

If you see the USDA Organic seal, you can rest assured that it is what it is. So the USDA holds that seal up and promotes it as organic.

So?

You can't put that seal on produce and other perishables such as meat. You can advertise it in store as being organic when in fact it is not.

Another issue has to do with labeling requirements. Organic food producers (OTA members) can list ingredients however they want. Do you really think the USDA goes out and covers all of these producers? They can't because prior administrations have adopted the "government is bad" mantra and went out to prove it by crippling consumer oriented agencies such as the USDA.

The OTA knows this and we're now seeing the big players create a new market called "natural" in order to cash in on the organic-implied attributes of natural. They lower costs by shutting out US organic farmers and buying food from China. This hurts the US organic farmers and does not give conventional farmers any incentive whatsoever to switch over the organic farming.

This is why I call the OTA's announcement bullshit. Because it's about labeling, not food and farmers. Do yourself and your farmers a favor: shop from them directly. Start you own co-op. I have. It's based in the 'burbs of Denver. We get our food from Boulder and distribute it free to other co-op members. We sure as heck cannot get Denver metro locally grown organic foods. We have to go north to Boulder/Longmont. That's okay as it still qualifies as local. But it's also a pretty damning indictment of the local "farmers" market such as the one at Belmar. One farm represented and it wasn't organic. It needs to be called what it is: a flea market.