As the integrity of the USDA organic standards erode, a broad coalition of organic farmers and advocates have formed the Real Organic Project. The nonprofit is working to promote the practices of traditional organic farming. Farmers believe this effort is needed as the current USDA National Organic Program is now permitting hydroponics and CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to be certified as organic. The Real Organic Project requires improving soil fertility and that animals have adequate outdoor access and pasture.
Today the Real Organic Project is announcing the release of their provisional standards for the add-on label. As the organic movement continues to grow, it is seeking to reclaim transparency when identifying itself to farmers and eaters.
In late March, the newly formed Standards Board for the Real Organic Project came together in Fairlee, Vermont. Twenty-one Project board members traveled from all over the country for the meeting. The Standards board consists of eleven farmers, a policy director from a retail store chain, a scientist, an inspector, a consumer advocate, and representatives from non-profits. They met for two intensive days of debate and hard work after many weeks of preparation.
Real Organic Executive Director Dave Chapman said, “All we are seeking is transparency. Our message is clear and simple. Organic farming must be based on healthy soil, with plants and animals as an integral part of that soil ecosystem. The only radical thing about our new standards is that they have been rejected by the USDA. They are a return to the fundamental beliefs of organic farming.”
The add-on standards are:
Origin of Livestock. In current NOP rules, producers can continuously transition dairy animals into organic over time. This standard ends that loophole.
Grazing Requirement. There is strong evidence that current NOP grazing requirements are not being met. This standard tightens the current standard, and it will be enforced.
Grown in the Ground. Current NOP decisions permit 100% hydroponic production with no relationship between the soil and plants. This standard mirrors the recently passed EU standard that requires crops to be grown in the soil, in contact with the subsoil, in contact with the bedrock.
Soil Management. Current NOP language requires certified farms to maintain and improve the fertility of the soil, but these standards are often not being met. This standard simply reinforces the language and intention of The Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) and the NOP language.
Greenhouse Production. NOP standards around greenhouse production have never been set. This standard prohibits the use of 100% artificial lighting and requires an energy plan to show steady progress in reducing the carbon footprint.
Animal Welfare. Following the recent rejection of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Production (OLPP) recommendation for improved animal welfare, CAFO production of poultry has become accepted in NOP certification. This standard requires genuine outdoor access for all animals. It also addresses other animal welfare concerns, such as preventing tail docking and beak trimming (used in farming systems that allow overcrowding of livestock).
Split Farms. This standard limits the circumstances in which an organic farm can produce non-certified crops.
“These are the standards that most in the organic community support and want enforced by the USDA,” added Real Organic board member Lisa Stokke, Executive Director of Next7.org. “These are the basis of our wrap-around add-on label, and they are the foundation of organic.”
The farmers believe that this label will bring transparency back for organic consumers. The vast majority of certified organic farms in the US will easily meet these “new” standards. The provisional standards will be open for public comment this fall.
“These seven short organic standards are the missing heart of the NOP standards,” said Linley Dixon, Standards Board vice chair of the Real Organic Project. “They have all been discussed at great length by the NOSB over the years. While some were passed by the NOSB and then ignored, others were debated but never passed at all.”
The Real Organic Project will be managing a pilot program this year certifying a limited number of farms. This pilot program will test the certification process in preparation for the label going public in 2019. Further details about the program will be released this summer.
“The Real Organic Project will restore organic farmers’ ability to convey that they are producing real organic food, in the tradition of pioneer farmers who began the organic movement. It is unfortunate that this add-on label is necessary, but USDA has demonstrated over the past few years that it is unwilling to uphold the full integrity of the organic label,” stated Francis Thicke, organic dairy farmer from Fairfield, Iowa, current Real Organic Project Standards Board chair and former National Organic Standards Board member.
The Real Organic Project was formed in January of 2018 to educate, promote, and advocate for traditional biological farming, which has come to be called “Organic Farming.” The Real Organic Project is intended to fill the void left by failures of integrity, transparency, and public process in the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). As the NOP has been increasingly reduced to a marketing brand, it is clear that a catalyst is needed to reinvigorate the organic farming movement.
Because the need is so clear, the Real Organic Project has quickly gathered forty-five prominent organic advocates to serve on the three boards (Executive, Standards, and Advisory). Twenty-eight of the board members are farmers. Five are current members of the NOSB. Eight are former NOSB members. Eight have PhDs in soil science. The many board members’ commitment is a clear demonstration of the depth and breadth of community support for this effort.
Our planned projects are intended to raise the public awareness and participation in the movement to sustain an agriculture based on improving soil health. We support the traditional model of small family organic farms, but we also welcome larger farms that seriously follow the principle of “feed the soil, not the plant.” We advocate for farming based on pastured livestock and soil-based cropping.
Our initial efforts are focused on the creation of an add-on label to the USDA organic label. This wrap-around label will prohibit hydroponic and CAFO production, instead requiring practices that maintain and improve the health of the soil. Our simple standards for the wrap-around label were set by the Real Organic Standards Board in late March.
The fifteen-member Standards Board came together in Vermont from all over the country. They met for two intensive days of debate and hard work after many weeks of preparation.
People came from all over the country to prepare the standards.
The result is a thirty-one page document that lays out the standards. The Real Organic Project has released the Provisional Standards on our website:
These seven short standards are the missing heart of the NOP standards. They have all been discussed at great length by the NOSB over the years. These are the standards that most in the organic community support and want enforced by the USDA. They are the basis of our wrap-around ADD-ON label, and they are the foundation of organic.
To sum up briefly, the standards are:
Origin of Livestock. In current NOP rules, producers can continuously transition dairy animals into organic over time. This standard ends that loophole.
Grazing Requirement. There is strong evidence that current NOP grazing requirements are not being met. This standard tightens the current standard, and it will be enforced.
Grown in the Ground. Current NOP decisions permit 100% hydroponic production with no relationship between the soil and plants. This standard mirrors the recently passed EU standard that requires crops to be grown in the soil, in contact with the subsoil, in contact with the bedrock.
Soil Management. Current NOP language requires certified farms to maintain and improve the fertility of the soil, but these standards are often not being met. This standard simply reinforces the language and intention of OFPA and the NOP language.
Greenhouse Production. NOP standards around greenhouse production have never been set. This standard prohibits the use of 100% artificial lighting and requires an energy plan to show steady progress in reducing the carbon footprint.
Animal Welfare. Following the recent rejection of the animal welfare standard (known as OLPP), CAFO production of poultry has become accepted in NOP certification. Our standard requires genuine outdoor access for all animals. It also addresses other animal welfare concerns, such as tail docking and beak trimming, that are needed in farming systems that allow overcrowding of livestock.
Split Farms. This standard limits the circumstances in which an organic farm can produce non-certified crops.
We listened carefully to each other. Electronic devices were banned for two days!
It is important to note that none of these standards are radical or extreme. They are conservative in embracing some of the foundational ideals of organic farming. They are meant as a return to the root. As the USDA organic seal is being stretched by the economic forces seeking to take advantage of the strong desire among consumers for healthier food, it is easy to forget that consumers are not just looking for another label but rather for food that is actually being grown in a different way. This label will be an attempt to bring transparency back to the NOP. The vast majority of certified organic farms will easily meet these “new” standards, which have been well vetted by countless hours of discussion over the years. It is the small number of CAFOs and HYDROs that will not qualify. And it is those same farms that are hiding behind the organic label to sell their products to an unsuspecting public.
All we are seeking is transparency. Our message is clear and simple. Organic farming must be based on healthy soil, with plants and animals as an integral part of that soil ecosystem. The only radical thing about our new standards is that they have been rejected by the USDA. They are a return to the fundamental beliefs of organic farming.
Our thanks to the people who worked for weeks and then traveled from all over the country to create these standards. This is a group of highly respected organic champions. They are farmers and advocates. Five are former NOSB members. Four are current NOC members. Six are Committee members of the Organic Farmers Association. Three are Board or staff of the Cornucopia Institute. All have worked for many years to protect organic. They came from California, Texas, Iowa, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maine, Colorado, Washington DC, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
We lived on organic carrots and Green Mountain coffee for two days.
The standards will be tested in 2018 in a Pilot Program involving approximately fifty farms around the country. We have hired an Associate Director to coordinate the Program applications and to be responsible for the inspections. Some of the inspections will be done working with a few trusted certifiers at the same time as the NOP inspections, but most will be done by our own inspectors, traveling around the country to the participating farms.
Farmers are already volunteering to join in the Pilot Project. We will select strong candidates from different regions across the country representing diverse farm types. At present, certification will be limited to U.S. farms and will not include processing.
Tentative fees for the certification will average $200 per farm.
We are planning to conduct third-party on-site inspections every five years. For the four years between on-site inspections, farms will fill out an affidavit reporting on their practices. Any concerns or reports of problems will result in more frequent and immediate on-site inspections.
The inspector will film three-minute videos of each farm that will be posted on our website so that customers and other farmers can see for themselves how the food is grown. Know your farmer.
We believe that the label will gain national attention due to farmer and community support in spreading the word. We are working with a lawyer to ensure we have as little exposure to lawsuits as possible, but if we are sued, we intend to turn that into another opportunity to let people know what is happening. We have an enormous microphone, and we will use it.
These are the seven NOSB members who voted to block hydroponics last November in Jacksonville. Six of them are current board members of the Real Organic Project.
These are the seven NOSB members who voted to block hydroponics last November in Jacksonville. Six of them are current board members of the Real Organic Project.
At the Real Organic Project, we haven’t given up on reform. Indeed, five of our board members are current members of the NOSB. Nine are former members. This is not a group that has given up on the NOP. But it is certainly a group that sees how very difficult real reform will be. Until reform succeeds, we must be trying other strategies.
As CAFOs and hydroponics become an ever bigger part of the certified organic products, the public is being ever more misled. And the real organic farms who still make up the vast majority of certified operations are being lost in the shuffle. A recent story written by Cornucopia noted that the remaining 6 “organic” dairy farms in Texas (all large CAFOs) produce one and a half times more milk than the 450 certified family dairy farms in Wisconsin. We now see the organic family dairy farms being driven out of business in Vermont and California by CAFOs every day.
Aurora Dairy in Dublin, Texas. Photo by Cornucopia Institute
Many of our Board members are also members of the Organic Farmers Association and were involved in Congressional lobbying efforts this Spring. The news in Washington on the upcoming Farm Bill was grim, as the House and the Senate are taking turns tearing apart the integrity and accessibility of the NOP to American farmers. The House is proposing to cut off cost-share funding that helps farms get certified. This will have the biggest effect on the smallest farms and beginning farmers. At the same time, the Senate is proposing to open OFPA (Organic Food Production Act) to restructure the NOSB to be even more favorable to industrial farms.
Dave Chapman meeting with Bernie Sanders and NOFA VT's Maddie Kempner during an OFA fly-in to Washington before the Farm Bill in April.
It is chilling to see that all of the requests to the Senate by Theo Crisantes of Wholesum Harvest are coming to pass. When Crisantes testified to the Senate Ag Committee less than a year ago, he made three radical requests:
That hydroponics be fully permitted by the NOP.
That the NOP stop working on “outlier” issues like animal welfare, and in particular on outside access for poultry.
That the NOSB be reformed to include more representation for industrial farming and the bigger corporate chains.
It is hard to believe that so much has been lost in such a short time. Since Crisantes testified in July of 2017, hydroponics have been fully approved by the NOP, despite language in OFPA and the 2010 NOSB recommendation to the contrary. The USDA has rejected ANY standards on animal welfare as being irrelevant to organic certification. And now the Senate Ag Committee is working to change the NOSB for the worse in the newest Farm Bill.
Theo Crisantes of the Coalition for Sustainable Organics testifying to the Senate in 2017
When Crisantes testified to the Senate, he was speaking as the owner of Wholesum Harvest, but he was also speaking as the spokesperson for the Coalition For Sustainable Organics. The Coalition is a secretive group of hydroponic producers. We don’t know who their members are, nor how big their budget is. We do know that they managed to gain an invitation to speak for the organic community to the Senate Ag Committee, when well-respected groups like the National Organic Coalition have never been permitted to speak.
This can only happen through well-paid lobbyists exerting tremendous influence. We discuss this dark chapter because we have to understand what we are up against. These groups are promoting an “alternative organic” quite different from the traditional meaning. So please contact your legislators asking them to protect organic integrity in the Farm Bill.
A bright note is the recent vote by the European Commission to extend the current EU ban on hydroponics in organic to all of the EU countries. This ban will be slowly moved to full enforcement in the three Nordic countries where some form of hydro is currently permitted in certification. The same bill (much like the U.S. Farm Bill) calls for a prohibition on allowing USDA imports of hydroponics as organic.
We are not alone.
Many thanks, Dave Chapman
p.s. Please forward this letter to any friends who might be interested.
p.p.s. Please post the Rally video on Facebook to spread the word:
p.p.p.s. if you’re new to these letters: I’m Dave Chapman, organic farmer at Long Wind Farm in Vermont. I write occasional updates on important things I think you’d like to know about the organic farming movement.
Since my last letter to you on February 16, a lot has happened! Here’s a quick update on where we are now, what’s coming up in March, and something you can do now that will help our friends at the Cornucopia Institute. —Dave
p.s. if you’re new to these letters: I’m Dave Chapman, organic farmer at Long Wind Farm in Vermont. I write occasional updates on important things I think you'd like to know about the organic farming movement.
If you enjoy this newsletter, perhaps you’d like to share it with your friends by sending them to www.realorganicproject.org and inviting them to give us their email address.
Rally to Protect Organic at Jacksonville
We are hard at work on the simple standards that will define our organic add-on label. In three weeks our fifteen-person Standards Board will come together in Vermont from around the country to create the provisional standards. We will send out an update after that meeting to describe progress on the upcoming pilot project.
Dave speaking at NOFA Summer Conference 2017
This Saturday I will be giving the keynote address at the NOFA CT Winter Conference in Danbury. I will talk about why the Real Organic Project was formed, and what we hope to accomplish in the coming years.
Please join me if you can make it. We will be showing the short film of The Rallies to Protect Organic at the beginning of the talk. Sign up for the NOFA conference or to stream the keynote:
Ask store teams about what they are selling as organic
One of the programs we are most excited about is the “Just Ask” campaign, urging eaters all over the country to ask the staff where they shop whether the certified organic tomatoes and berries offered are hydroponic or are they real organic grown in the soil. And eaters will ask if the eggs and meat and milk came from CAFOs or from farms where the animals got real access to pasture every day.
The “Just Ask” campaign has the same goal as the current effort from Cornucopia Institute to Demand Real Organic Food From Real Organic Farmers. Cornucopia wants all organic eaters to send them a card asking major retailers to offer genuine organic choices. If we speak up, the stores will respond. Please visit them and support this campaign:
Finally, we have had a few more people join the Real Organic Advisory Board since my 2/16 letter. We are very proud of many voices that have come together to support us:
David Montgomery and Anne Biklé
Anne Bicklé & David Montgomery are Dig2Grow, a husband & wife and a pair of writers who live in Seattle. Dave is a broad-minded geologist and Anne is a free-range biologist with a bad case of plant lust. They chose Dig2Grow because “that’s what happens when you write, talk, and act on things that matter to the well-being of people and our one-and-only planet.”
They both speak widely on the complex world of soil, plants, and animals. They have become champions for the revolution of regenerative agriculture taking place worldwide.
David is a professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is also a MacArthur Fellow. Anne is a biologist with wide-ranging interests that have led her into watershed restoration, environmental planning, and public health.
David has written Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life and Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations. Anne and David co-wrote the book The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health.
Maddie Kempner
Maddie Kempner is the Policy Director of NOFA VT. Maddie worked with the VT Right to Know GMOs Coalition to help pass Vermont’s GMO labeling law. Maddie is passionate about advocating for positive food and farm policy change.
She has a Master of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. Active in the movement to Keep The Soil In Organic, Maddie has spoken at Rallies in both Vermont and Jacksonville, Florida. She has testified numerous times to the NOSB to protect organic integrity.
Zoë Ida Bradbury
Zoë Ida Bradbury. Born onto a sheep ranch along the southern Oregon coast, Zoë grew up birthing lambs in the spring, watching salmon spawn in the fall, and taming plums and tomatoes into canning jars all summer. Her love for food, farming and rural livelihood ultimately lured her back to her native southern Oregon where she has run a diversified fresh market farm — Valley Flora — since 2008, on land shared with her mother and sister.
With her two young daughters in tow, she cultivates a couple hundred varieties of vegetable, berry, fruit, herb and flower crops for local restaurants, foodbanks, farmstand, u-pick, and 100+ CSA shares (all with the help of one old electric tractor, one young diesel tractor, three draft horses, and a couple of wonderful employees).
She graduated from Stanford University and has a masters degree in Community Change and Food Systems. She is a Food & Society Policy Fellow, has written for a number of publications over the years, and co-edited Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers’ Movement.
Steve Ela
Steve Ela is a farmer from Colorado. He is co-owner of Ela Family Farms, which has been certified organic since 1996. He is a current member of the National Organic Standards Board. He was an Organic Farming Research Foundation board member from 2001–2011 and previous OFRF board Chairman.
Steve has been an organizer for several National Organic Tree Fruit Research Symposiums and has participated in and written grants for numerous research projects. Steve has a Master’s in Soil Science, and has served on a wide variety of Boards and Advisory Committees addressing food and agriculture issues nationally, regionally, and locally.
Mary Ellen Chadd
Mary Ellen Chadd started Green Spark Farm in 2009 and now farms full-time year-round with her husband and two little daughters. Mary Ellen attended Evergreen State College majoring in Ecological Agriculture and Community Food Systems.
Before starting her farm in her home-town area in Maine, she worked with the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project there, writing curriculum and training refugees and new Americans in farming systems, marketing for farmers, and farm business planning.
She contributes to the new farmer community by speaking at MOFGA classes and events. Her farm has employed and mentored six young farmers who have gone on to start their own farm businesses.
Will Allen
Will Allen grew up on a small farm in Southern California. He served in the Marine Corps. Will earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1968, studying tropical forest farmers in Peru. Will taught at the University of Illinois and later at the University of California.
He began farming organically in the Santa Barbara area in 1968. He founded Ganesha Growers in 1977 and was one of the first organic farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. He served on the board of California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and helped write the first organic handbook for CCOF. He served on the board and conference committee of the Ecological Farming Association for a dozen years. Will founded the Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP) in 1990 to help farmers learn how to grow organic cotton, convince garment makers to use organic fibers, and reduce farmworker pesticide injuries. SCP convinced Patagonia, Esprit, Levis, Marks and Spencer, Nike, and other garment makers to use organic fibers.
In 2000, he took over the management of Cedar Circle Farm, in East Thetford, Vermont along with his wife Kate Duesterberg. Their activist efforts resulted in the creation of a coalition for labeling GMO products in Vermont. They were successful, and Vermont became the first state in the US to pass a GMO labeling law in 2014. In 2016, Will transitioned his focus to co-found a new non-profit organization called Regeneration Vermont. The goal of Regeneration Vermont is to redirect Vermont agriculture toward regenerative methods that protect and enhance the natural environment, produce healthy food products, provide economic justice to farmers and farm workers, promote animal welfare, and implement climate change remediation through an understanding of, and commitment to, healthy, living soils. Will serves as the Research Director for the organization.
Will’s first book, The War on Bugs, was published by Chelsea Green in 2008.
Kate Duesterberg
Kate Duesterberg received a Master’s Degree from Southern Illinois University in Community Development & Ag Economics. Since graduate school, Kate has worked to promote local, organic farming – from the perspective of policy advocate, community organizer, institutional change advocate, and farm manager. She started her activist career as Sustainable Agriculture program coordinator at Illinois Stewardship Alliance and then at Rural Vermont, two NGOs working to promote sustainable farming. Kate worked at the University of Vermont (UVM), where she helped establish the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture. A major focus was to organize programs to help farmers and agricultural professionals (Extension, NRCS, Department of Agriculture) learn about sustainable and organic farming techniques, calling upon experienced farmers as teachers. Kate also worked with the Women’s Agricultural Network at UVM and the Sustainable Cotton Project in California as managing director.
Since 2000, Kate has co-managed Cedar Circle Farm in East Thetford, Vermont. In 2016, Kate, Will, and their partner Michael Colby founded a new non-profit organization called Regeneration Vermont. The goal of Regeneration Vermont is to redirect Vermont agriculture toward regenerative methods that protect and enhance the natural environment, produce healthy food products, provide economic justice to farmers and farm workers, promote animal welfare, and implement climate change remediation through an understanding of — and commitment to — healthy, living soils.
I just wanted to let you know that the Real Organic Project has been born. I’d like to review the past and take a look at the future of certified organic farming. If you care about organic, please forward this letter to your friends.
The Past
It has not been a good year for the National Organic Program. Since the November NOSB (National Organic Standards Board) meeting in Jacksonville failed to prohibit HYDRO, the organic community has gone through a period of questioning and searching. We are wrestling with the basic question, “Can we trust the USDA to protect organic integrity?”
Following a series of devastating articles about the NOP (National Organic Program) in the Washington Post last year, all the news from the USDA has been bad. In September, the USDA exonerated the enormous Aurora Dairy CAFO (Confinement Animal Feeding Operation) of any wrongdoing at their Colorado “farm.” This dairy operation was described in detail in one WaPo article, along with compelling test results to prove the cattle weren’t on pasture. The government approval set the stage for Aurora to build several new CAFOs that will dwarf the current 15,000-cow operation.
For the supporters of CAFO Organic: Mission Accomplished.
A certified “organic” Aurora dairy facility. Image courtesy of Cornucopia.
Then the USDA abandoned the animal welfare reforms (called OLPP) which had finally been approved under Obama. This rejection by the USDA was the result of intense lobbying from such groups as the Coalition For Sustainable Organics (in their Senate testimony), American Farm Bureau, and the National Pork Producers Council. They were championed by the ranking members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, protecting enormous “organic” egg CAFOs in their home states. The USDA thus cleared the way for CAFOs to continue receiving “organic” certification.
Once again, for CAFO meat, milk, and egg operations: Mission Accomplished.
This is a conventional CAFO. There are no pictures permitted of “organic” CAFOs, but they look the same.
Then in January, the USDA announced that “Certification of hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic operations is allowed under the USDA organic regulations, and has been since the National Organic Program began.” This was an interesting rewriting of history, but who cares about the facts?
For the soilless HYDRO growers: Mission Accomplished.
Wholesum Harvest, which insists that it is not a hydroponic producer.
Finally, the USDA recently told the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) that, going forward, they will be severely limited in the scope of their work. They will not address big questions about organic integrity. They will not set their own agenda. They will limit their focus to defining what substances will be permitted in organic certification.
These outcomes (allowing hydro, setting aside animal welfare, and reducing the role of the NOSB) are exactly what Theo Crisantes of the Coalition For Sustainable Organics called for when he testified before the Senate Ag Committee last year.
Mission Accomplished.
Theo Crisantes testifying for the Coalition For Sustainable Organics to the Senate Ag Committee.
It would appear that the USDA is no longer even bothering to woo the organic community with sweet talk. They are bluntly speaking their truth, which is that “Certified Organic” means whatever they want it to mean, and to hell with the organic community. And apparently, to hell with OFPA as well. Organic is all about marketing, isn’t it?
For the many people who have spent years working hard to build the integrity of the NOP, this is a dismal moment. We have lost the helm, and the New Organic will not have much to do with the ideals of such pioneers as Albert Howard and Eve Balfour. It will have to do with money. Money will decide what is called “certified organic” and what isn’t.
And so, if we still care about those ideals, we must move on. The National Organic Program will continue to flourish. Many people will still turn to it to find safer food. Many good people will still work hard to make the NOP as honest and positive as possible. But the NOP will be controlled by politicians and lobbyists who have no belief in the mission of the organic farming movement.
Two amazing cartoons by Gary Larson show the evolution of the corporate takeover of the NOP. The first cartoon shows the beginning of seeing that it is easier to win if you look like the sheep.
So ten years ago, some CAFO farms started to “talk organic.” They discovered that a lucrative market could be exploited while still embracing the conventional model of confinement feeding of livestock.
“Hey! I think you’ve hit on something there! Sheep’s clothing! Sheep’s clothing! . . . Let’s get out of these gorilla suits!”
“Wait a minute! Isn’t anyone here a real sheep?”
The second Larson cartoon shows where the National Organic Program is headed in another ten years. What happens when the organic market is mostly filled with CAFO and HYDRO production? Will eaters still trust the USDA Organic Seal?
The Rallies
Last Fall we saw an unprecedented turnout from the organic community trying to reclaim the NOP. This culminated in the final Rally at Jacksonville and two days of farmer testimony.
The sad outcome was that the farmers were ignored. It turned out that many members of the NOSB really didn’t understand what organic meant. We failed to win even a simple majority in the NOSB vote to prohibit HYDRO. We faced an enormous and successful lobbying effort by the protectors of HYDRO such as OTA, CCOF, and the Coalition For Sustainable Organics. These seem to be the Champions of New Organic.
There is now a short video of the many Rallies. It’s an inspiring short watch, please give it a click to view: Facebook // YouTube
Keep the Soil in Organic Rallies Video
What happens now?
This winter, a growing group of farmers and eaters have formed the Real Organic Project. The Real Organic Project will work to support real organic farming.
This will involve a number of efforts, starting with the creation of a new “Add-On” label to represent the organic farming that we have always cared about. It will use USDA certification as a base, but it will have a small number of critical additional requirements. These will differentiate it from the CAFOs, HYDROs, and import cheaters that are currently USDA certified.
This group grew out of several meetings of Vermont farmers who believed that the USDA label was no longer something that could represent us. Starting a new label is not a small task, but we can no longer find an alternative. That small group of Vermonters has grown quickly into a national group. This amazing group of organic advocates has gathered to build something new. Scroll below to see who we are.
Standards Board // We now have a 15-member Standards Board (listed below), based on the model of the NOSB, but with much greater representation from the organic community. The 15 volunteers have a wealth of experience in both farming and regulation. There are 9 farmer members, as well as representatives from NGOs, stores, consumers, scientists, and certifiers.
The group includes 5 former NOSB members, as well as leading farmers and advocates from across the country. They will meet in March to set the first standards. They will continue to meet once a year after that to review and update. This first year there will be a pilot project with a small number of farms to test the certifying process and work out the details.
Advisory Board // There is also a distinguished Advisory Board that currently has 18 members, including 4 former NOSB members and 3 current NOSB members. It also includes many well known organic pioneers such as Eliot Coleman and Fred Kirschenmann.
Executive Board // And finally, there is an Executive Board of 5 people that includes one current NOSB member.
These boards will work together to reconnect and unite our community. Our intent is transformational. We will create a label that we can trust again.
Please Join Us
We can only succeed with your support. Go to realorganicproject.org to become a member. Make a donation to help make this new label into a reality. We are only supported by our sweat and your generosity. We can reclaim the meaning of the organic label together.
This weekend, Feb 17 and 18, there will be a roundtable discussion both days at the NOFA VT Winter Conference. We will meet after lunch (1 to 2 PM).
On Saturday we will be discussing “National Organic Program: Where Are We?”
On Sunday at the same time we will be discussing “National Organic Program: Where Are We Going?”
NOFA will be showing the Many Rallies video at the lunchtime Plenary Session. For anyone interested, I will be giving the keynote address at the NOFA CT Winter Conference on March 10. I will be discussing these issues and be giving an update on the Real Organic Project.
The Organic Movement: Try. Fail. Fail again. Fail better. A call to action from an organic moderate.
Jacksonville
Looking back on the USDA meeting in Jacksonville, I am left with anger, grief, and a sense of urgency that we keep moving forward. The meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) was a historical turning point for the National Organic Program (NOP). It was a watershed moment.
After massive scandal and fraud in recent years, this was our last chance to regain the lost integrity of the organic seal. The regulatory issue up for a vote was whether soil is the necessary foundation for organic farming. If soil isn’t required, hydroponics will lead the way to a New USDA Organic. But the bigger issue was the integrity of the National Organic Program. Does it stand for real organic, or has it become a marketing tool for industrial agriculture?
This has become an international issue, as a debate takes place between the organic movement and the hydro industry. Organic has always been about the soil. In our world of Walganic, soil is easily forgotten by recent converts. They ask, “Isn’t it just about pesticides?”
No.
All of the organic philosophy is about building the health of the soil. All the benefits of health and climate come from a fertile soil. If you can get the soil right, then you don’t need pesticides. Not all traditional farming is organic. Some of it was very destructive and created most of today’s deserts. There was a time that Afghanistan more closely resembled Austria.
But at the same time that the European Commission is strengthening organic standards to prohibit hydro, the National Organic Program is collapsing like a house of cards.
The hydro forces were arrayed against us with Driscoll’s, Wholesum Harvest, Organic Trade Association, California Certified Organic Farmers, and United Natural Foods Inc working together to get hydro approved. We were wearing t-shirts that said, “Protect Organic.” But they wanted to Protect Money, not Organic. Money is what connects these groups.
The Jacksonville meeting had a feel of the gunfight at the OK Corral. Organic pioneers and advocates came from as far away as Europe, and from as close as downtown Jacksonville. We were united by common beliefs about soil and health. We were there to celebrate and defend real organic, not to attack hydro.
Wholesum is big by my standards, but Driscoll’s dwarfs them as one of the two biggest organic producers in the world. They are also the biggest conventional berry producer in the world. They are BIG. If we took Driscoll’s out of the equation, the whole fight would have disappeared. Driscolls brought Organic Trade Association and CCOF to the hydro side. Without them we would have won this years ago. The “debate” would be over.
There was a Rally to Protect Organic, with 65 farmers and eaters during the lunch break on the first day. We marched behind a brass band and spoke at a plaza to recall what the word organic stands for. There were 14 other rallies across the country leading up to Jacksonville, but there has never been such a gathering as took place that day. Farmers who have taught the rest of us for many years, such as Eliot Coleman and Fred Kirschenmann, inspired us with their call to action. Younger farmers such as Linley Dixon, Dan Bensonoff, and Tom Barrett traveled far to support real organic.
The march was led by Anais Beddard, a 29 year-old farmer who is the second generation to run Lady Moon Farms, and Eliot Coleman, the 78 year old pioneer who helped the USDA write its first report on organic farming 37 years ago (8 years before Anais was born!). Between them marched 92-year-old Emily Dale, who attributes her long life and health to eating organic food.
Four current NOSB members and six former NOSB members, joined us at the Rally, as well as farmers from all over the country. Most of that crowd was well qualified to serve on the NOSB as well. They included scientists, policy activists, and eaters. Anglos and people of color. Women and men. Young and old. They were people who cared about food and how it is grown. They were highly informed leaders of the organic movement.
When citizen testimony began in the afternoon, there was a wave of excitement as farmer after farmer spoke about why soil is the basis for all organic farming. Out of over 32 real organic farmers who testified, only 2 were in direct competition with hydro producers. The rest were there to protect organic.
Speakers included former NOSB member Gerry Davis, an agronomist who testified for Grimmway Farms, owner of CalOrganic. Grimmway is the biggest organic vegetable farm in the world. Gerry was also the chair of the NOSB Crops Subcommittee at the time of the 2010 Recommendation. He also presented a report in 2016 to the USDA Hydroponic Task Force that I served on. He was uniquely qualified to speak about the issue. His position still was that hydro does not belong in organic. He felt that soil was the necessary foundation of all real organic farming.
Farmer Fred Kirschenmann, former NOSB Chair, and current board President of Stone Barns Foundation, spoke of the need to protect organic. He said that limited natural resources will become more scarce with time, and organic must find a different path forward, based on the soil and the law of return.
Michael Besancon testified for Patagonia, which strongly supports the movement to Keep The Soil. Michael is a former senior global vice-president for Whole Foods, but at the meeting he was testifying for Patagonia. He shared Patagonia’s letter to the NOSB supporting soil, signed by 17 different CEO’s. He warned of the enormous threat to the organic brand from allowing hydroponics. He said this departure from integrity and transparency would damage faith in the organic seal, hurting both the organic trade and farmers.
Alan Lewis spoke for Natural Grocers, warning of the destruction of the trusting relationship that it has taken so long to build up with customers of the organic seal.
Another speaker was Jeff Moyers, executive director of Rodale Institute and board member of IFOAM US. Jeff was also an active member of the 2010 Crops Subcommittee who went on to become chair of the NOSB, and remains adamant that organic needs to be in the ground. He stressed that the 2010 recommendation was very clear in its intention. He still stands by it, as does Rodale.
Another was farmer Jim Riddle, former NOSB Chair, and current Steering Committee Chair of the Organic Farmers Association (OFA). Jim said that the first policy position of the OFA is to support the soil proposal from the NOSB Crops Subcommittee.
Another was Tom Beddard from Lady Moon Farms, who spoke with great energy about why we needed to keep the organic standards true.
Another was Abby Youngblood of the National Organic Coalition, testifying in support of organic for 13 member NGOs that have fought for years for organic integrity.
Another was farmer and Keep The Soil organizer David Miskell, who showed a short video of 14 earlier Rallies To Protect Organic that led up to the meeting.
Another was NOFA VT Policy Director Maddie Kempner, who has been instrumental in organizing Rallies for 3 years now.
Another was Lisa Stokke from Next 7, who presented two petitions with 86,000 citizen signatures urging NOSB to keep the soil. Most of those signatures were gathered within the previous two days. The two petitions have since gotten over 100,000 signatures.
And Jennifer Taylor, Georgia farmer and former NOSB member. And Jay Feldman, former NOSB and Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides. And Colehour Bondera, Hawaiian farmer and former NOSB member. And Marian Blom representing IFOAM EU, which urged the NOSB to prohibit hydroponics. And farmer John Bobbe from OFarm. And farmer Roger Noonan from New England Farmers Union. And farmer Linley Dixon from Cornucopia Institute. And farmer Isaura Andulez from OSGATA. And Anais Beddard, Sarah & Ryan Voiland, Jim Gerritsen, Mark Kastel, Jack Algiere, Jim Fulmer, Pat Kerrigan, Charlotte Vallaeys, Karl Hammer, Mike Brownback, Urvashi Rangan, and on, and on, and on. One certainly can’t say that the NOSB didn’t hear from the organic community.
The mood was so buoyant after the first day of testimony, that one supportive board member turned as she got off the elevator that night and smiled broadly. She said to us, “That was the best NOSB meeting I have ever been to.”
The testimony continued the next day, and by the time of the vote, even die-hard pessimists like me believed that we would win the vote. How could the board deny what they were hearing? The movement had finally come to testify. The words were so clear and true. How could the board fail to protect the organic movement?
The testimony by the Hydro lobby was flat and uninspired, often presented by paid lobbyists. One leading lobbyist from the Organic Trade Association was unable to answer the simple question from NOSB member Francis Thicke, ”If you are growing in a container of coco coir and all the fertility is given as a liquid nutrient, is that hydroponic?” The lobbyist looked like a deer in the headlights. After saying that he didn’t understand the question, and having the question repeated, the lobbyist finally answered, “I don’t know.” This was coming from a very intelligent man who has studied this issue for literally many hundreds of hours. He has insisted numerous times that Driscoll’s is not hydroponic because they grow in containers. When asked a direct question in public, his entire argument collapsed. I would suggest that he did know, and has always known. It put a lie to the OTA campaign of obfuscation.
Defining hydroponics was one of the most fundamental questions the meeting was discussing, as Driscoll’s, Wholesum, and the OTA have all insisted that they SUPPORT the 2010 recommendation banning hydroponics, but that Driscoll’s and Wholesum aren’t hydroponic! They insist they are instead “container grown.”
It turns out that everything about “hydroponic organic” is a lie.
The name of their primary lobbying group (The Coalition For Sustainable Organics) is a lie. They are really a coalition for hydroponics in organic.
It is a lie that the container production of Driscoll’s and Wholesum is not hydroponic. Virtually all the nutrients are supplied to the plants by a liquid solution. Most conventional hydroponic production of those crops takes place in “containers.”
It is a lie that consumers are happy to buy hydroponics. If that was true, the hydro producers would proudly admit to being hydroponic, instead of hiding it. They would advertise that they were hydroponic so that everyone would choose their products! There have been no consumer petitions with 100,000 signatures calling for hydroponics. As Dan Barber said after hearing Kimball Musk’s description of hydroponics, “It’s not making me hungry.”
It is a lie that they are primarily motivated by a desire to feed the poor of the world. These are business people. They are motivated by a desire to become richer by cashing in on the organic brand. Gus Schumacher, the recently deceased founder of Wholesome Wave, was motivated by a deep desire to feed the poor and underserved. Theo Crisantes of Wholesum Harvest has a different motivation. I do not judge that. We can’t all be saints like Gus. Just let us be honest about it.
It is a lie that it is wrong to take certification away from hydro because they are already certified. We all agree that CAFOs should be decertified, despite “being organic” for years now. We should not continue to give certification to producers who don’t deserve it. The organic seal cannot survive it.
It is a lie that hydro is in alignment with the 2010 recommendation. The 2010 recommendation is clearly about prohibiting hydro. The vast majority of current hydro production was started AFTER the 2010 recommendation was passed. Certainly Driscoll’s knew they were opposing a standing NOSB recommendation, as they had an employee on the board as a “farmer” member (another lie).
It is a lie that hydro is “soil”, despite the twisted logic of some prominent lobbyists who redefine words with abandon.
It is a lie that hydroponics doesn’t use pesticides. In the two biggest hydro operations that gave presentations to the USDA Task Force, pesticides were a regular part of their insect control strategy.
It is a lie that hydroponics will not flourish without organic certification. As Marion Blom testified, 100% of the many thousands of acres of conventional greenhouse vegetables in Europe are grown hydroponically. The only soil production left in EU greenhouse vegetables is organic. There is nothing revolutionary about hydro except that it is displacing soil growing. Conventional hydro is quickly putting field soil growers out of business for tomatoes, cucs, peppers, and berries. This is the new world order, regardless of what the NOP does. Prohibiting hydro in the NOP would have created an alternative, the last safe place for soil production. The last place to buy food grown in the soil.
It is a lie that greenhouse growing saves energy. While it does offer food grown out of season, almost all greenhouse growing has a larger carbon footprint than field growing, even taking into account transportation. I say this as a greenhouse grower who is working hard to reduce my own carbon footprint. Let us be honest. All greenhouse growers have real work to do on this. We will not accomplish this work by lying about our impact.
It is a lie that hydro is better for the environment because it uses less water. Repairing a broken water cycle is one of the main benefits of real organic farming by building up the carbon sponge of the soil. Not only does it hold water when it rains hard, thus preventing unwanted run-off, but it also stores water for sustaining the plants when it is needed after the rain has stopped. It can create a verdant ground cover whose plants give off microbes needed for the formation of rain droplets. Our expanding deserts are not a result of a shortage of hydroponic greenhouses, but rather the destruction of the soil carbon sponge. The hydro operations are good at recycling water in a very local way, but they do nothing to help cycling water in a regional ecosystem. Poor agricultural practices are creating the desertification of the planet. Hydro will not reverse that. Also, the large hydro operations (such as Driscoll’s 1000 plus acres) mostly occur in desert climates where it is impractical to grow crops such as blueberries and tomatoes. Then these same crops are trucked thousands of miles to feed people in much more temperate climates.
It is a lie that we can only feed ourselves with hydroponics. Intensive agriculture is possible in the soil as well. Although yields are lower in the soil than in coco coir suspended in the air, they are still quite high. If such intensive agriculture is necessary to feed us, we can do it. Real organic production of greenhouse vegetables is growing in the EU, due to strong standards that protect real organic there.
It is a lie that a Federal Program is incapable of maintaining real organic standards. The EU has done that, and continues to do it. Even as the USDA sells off the NOP to the highest bidder, the EU is strengthening their already strong greenhouse standards to ensure that ALL organic production in Europe takes place in the soil, in the ground.
It is a lie that hydro is the only way to bring in young farmers without a lot of money. Young farmers are leaving the organic program in droves, because they no longer believe in its integrity. They are creating an alternative system of marketing their soil grown crops.
It is a lie that the hydro debate is about supporting small farmers. This debate is not about small farmers, despite what the lobbyists say. It is paid for and driven by a few enormous companies, primarily Driscoll’s and Wholesum. That is why OTA is in the fight. That is why CCOF is in the fight. That is why UNFI is in the fight.
It is a lie that hydro, CAFO, and soil growers are all part of one big organic community. Hydro is not a part of the organic community. Just because you walk in the door doesn’t make you a member of the congregation. In the old days they called some “Winter Shakers” because they would join the Shaker communities after all the farmwork was done for the year, and mooch off them until Spring when it was time to farm again. Then they left…
By allowing hydroponic to be called organic, the NOSB has made the National Organic Program into a lie.
One thing that is true is the hydro claim that they want to make the tent bigger. They want to make the tent enormous. The bigger, the better. But they don’t care about who gets into the tent. If you are willing to CALL your crop organic, come on in. They just hope that the real organic farmers will stay on the edge near the cameras for the publicity shots. That way they can say, “See. We are all in this together! We’re with them!” But the reality is that the tent isn’t getting bigger. They are just changing who is in the tent. Because the real organic farmers are going to leave. In one year, or in ten years, they are going to leave.
Only one soil farmer in two days testified in support of certifying hydro. And he was the President of CCOF. EVERY OTHER SOIL FARMER TESTIFIED TO EXCLUDE HYDROPONICS.
At the end of two days of testimony, the board deliberated. We got to hear from the Soil Seven, and from the Hydro Eight. The Soil Seven are the seven NOSB members who have tried to protect the organic standards from the start. They labored to craft a compromise proposal that might get the needed 10 votes for passage. They spoke eloquently about what organic means. I was inspired by the words of every one of them. When Dave Mortensen was finished, I felt challenged to become, not just a better farmer, but a better person. They all make me proud of the organic movement. They are glad to be called the Soil Seven.
When the Hydro Eight spoke, it was confusing and disjointed. They did not seem to believe their own words. They seemed embarrassed by what they were doing. They gave a strange assortment of reasons for their votes. Some said it was because they supported the 2010 recommendation prohibiting hydroponics! How strange is that? Some said it was because they wanted to protect the environment. Apparently by paving it. One said that after the shooting in Ferguson, she wanted to make sure poor people had access to affordable “organic” food by making it hydroponic. One said it was because Native Peoples had a strong connection with the land, and so she was supporting hydro. One said that she hadn’t heard from consumers. Perhaps she missed the consumer petitions with 86,000 signatures presented earlier.
No one said it was because the recommendation was too confusing and might be used to permit hydroponics. No one called for organic to be in the soil, in the ground. They seemed resolute in their approval of hydroponics. Most stated that they cared about the soil….but….
Perhaps it is worth mentioning that the NOSB did not vote to allow hydro. They just failed to pass a new recommendation to prohibit it. According to Miles MacEvoy, it is not an actionable vote unless it calls for a change and passes by two thirds. So the standing recommendation to the NOP continues to be the 2010 recommendation (further supported by the 2016 nonbinding resolution prohibiting hydro). And the NOP will continue to ignore and oppose both recommendations.
In the end, the problem wasn’t that the arguments weren’t strong enough or clear enough. We didn’t fail to make our case. It was simply that we had the wrong people making such an important decision. Many of the board members simply aren’t qualified to redefine the word “organic” for the entire United States. They have never read Albert Howard’s seminal book, The Soil And Health. Or Eve Balfour’s book The Living Soil that helped to inspire this movement. They have little understanding about what we are talking about. “Why is soil important?” They are unable to answer that question. Some of them even roll their eyes at the idea that human health comes from the soil’s health. They were selected by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (who also never understood organic farming) to protect and defend the organic movement. But they were not up to the task. I believe that the best of them will be haunted by the damage they have done for years to come.
To read Francis Thicke's farewell speech in which he warned of the failure of the NOSB to represent organic, go to:
In the end many didn’t want to vote at all, but my hat goes off to board member Sue Baird for insisting that we have a right to an honest vote. She tragically voted the wrong way, but at least she insisted that the endless obfuscation end. So we can finally move forward now.
The winner of the NOSB vote was the hydro industry by a landslide. Now the river of hydro sold as organic will become a torrent. They will make many millions of dollars by wrongly calling their produce “certified organic.”
Everyone else lost.
Of course the organic movement lost. We no longer have a partnership with the USDA. This was a truly tragic event, as the world needs the leadership of the organic community more than ever. At this critical time, the microphone has been taken away from us. The USDA will go one way, and the organic movement will go another.
The farmers that have worked so hard and invested so much energy to build up an organic seal have lost.
The companies that are true believers in organic have lost, putting their trust in the Organic Trade Association which has so badly failed them.
The nonprofits that have advocated for us with the USDA for many years have lost.
Even much of the opposition has lost. CCOF has lost their soul. Before long they will lose some of their farmers as well. Certainly they will lose much of the coming generation.
Organic Trade Association has done incalculable damage to the organic brand. I suspect that organic sales will lose billions of dollars in the coming decade as a result of this vote. Of course, “certified organic” sales will continue to grow, because people are desperate to find an alternative to the industrial food system. Many will be misled into thinking that “certified organic” is that alternative. And the hydro sales will boom, passing themselves off as “organic” to the unwary. CAFO “organic” will boom, emboldened by the success of the Hydros. Senate supporters for New Organic who force the inclusion of CAFOs have won a great victory. But for other OTA stakeholders, they will lose business as people lose faith.
With the suggestion of a “Hydroponic Organic” label, maybe they will also consider a “CAFO Organic” label, and a “GMO Organic label.” After all, none of these use prohibited pesticides.
And the eaters will lose the most. As the industrial ag folks pour in, it will be harder and harder to find real food. We all buy “certified organic” as much as we can. But now we will trust that seal less and less. And it will be less worthy of our trust.
As board member Emily Oakley said in the meeting, “73% of certified organic farms in 2016 were under 180 acres. And only .4% of USDA certified organic farms that same year were hydro/aqua/”container” combined.” So less than 1% of certified organic farms are hydro.
Seldom have so many lost so much for so few.
What do we do now?
Many organic farmers and eaters are now convinced that the USDA is no longer a worthy partner. And many have not yet heard the news. We have tried everything we could to save the National Organic Program, but we failed.
Now we are talking about creating a different label. Some want an add-on label that would stand for real organic. Some want a stand-alone label that has nothing to do with the National Organic Program. Some want to pursue the Regenerative Organic Label that Rodale is promoting. But the time for action has come. We have tried and failed. Now let us move forward, respecting our differences, and continue to build a real organic movement together. It will be a lot more fun than fighting the USDA. They have always needed us more than we needed them.
I will keep you posted as things progress.
As I was leaving the meeting after the vote, I passed a friendly lobbyist who has attended meetings all over the country supporting hydro for the last two years. He has worked hard to persuade the NOSB to allow hydroponics. He and I have argued for all that time. He said to me, in some sympathy, “Tough vote.”
I replied, “You know you just killed the National Organic Program?”
He thought for a moment, and then said, “I never believed in it, anyway.”
This winter, a growing group of farmers and eaters have formed the Real Organic Project. The Real Organic Project will work to support real organic farming.
