Washington- The organic industry is creating an anti-fraud task force in
the wake of a Washington Post report that millions of pounds of "USDA
Organic" soybeans and corn imported through Turkey appear to have been
fraudulent.
Organized by the Organic Trade Association, the task force
would develop methods for companies to ensure that imports of organic products
are actually organic.
"There is a strong desire on the part of industry to
stop the incidence of fraud in organic," said Laura Batcha, director of
the association. "The consumer expects that organic products are verified
back to the farm. The industry takes that contract with the consumer very
seriously."
Last month, The Post reported that three enormous shipments
of "organic" corn and soybeans - large enough to constitute a
meaningful proportion of the U.S. supply of those commodities - had reached the
US.
Documents and interviews indicated that the shipments were
not really organic - in fact, some had been treated with pesticides en route to
the US. All three shipments hailed from Turkey, one of the largest exporters of
organic products to the United States, according to Foreign Agricultural
Service statistics. With the "USDA Organic" designation, the value of
the shipments rose by millions of dollars.
The report confirmed the suspicions of many US farmers, who
have seen prices by as much as a third as the volume of imports of organic corn
and soybeans have climbed rapidly in recent years.
After the story appeared, one of the nation's largest
organic inspection agencies, CCOF, issued a notice to its clients indicating
that it "lacks confidence in the organic status of foreign grain.” The
agency instituted rules requiring that organic grain shipments be traceable
back to growers.
One of the Turkish exporters involved in the shipments
described by The Post, Beyaz Agro, has been "decertified" as an
organic company by the USDA.
Now comes news of the task force. Some US farmers look sceptically
at the effort because, they say, they have been waiting for two years for
protection from cheap - and fraudulent - organic imports.
John Bobbe, executive director of the Organic Farmers'
Agency for Relationship Marketing, or OFARM, a farmer cooperative, declared
that he was "amused" by the industry effort. He noted that many
members of the Organic Trade Association have benefited from the lower prices
on organic corn and soybeans.
The three shipments examined by The Post represent roughly 7
percent of annual organic corn imports and 4 percent of organic soybean
imports.
"It remains to be seen whether this effort is serious
or not," Bobbe said "The OTA has been strangely quiet about this
issue. It seems they have been looking the other way - the 'see no evil'
scenario. But I guess they can't ignore it now. I think the fire is burning
enough that the flames can't be stamped out."
The USDA has been far too lax - and slow - in ferreting out
fraudulent imports, US organic farmers have complained. For months, the agency
has said it has been investigating fraudulent grain imports.
If the anti-fraud efforts go no farther than publishing a
set of "best practices," Bobbe suggested, little is likely to change.
A list of ethical practices, he said, will not stop an importer intent on the
quick profits that can come from relabeling conventional grains as "USDA
Organic."
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But Batcha said that the industry is working on more than a
set of best practices. It is also lobbying to give the USDA broader enforcement
powers in the next farm bill, she said.
The association is also pushing Congress for new technology
to trace organic products all the way back to the farm. It will also ask that
the USDA's National Organic Program submit to Congress an annual report on
enforcement actions.
"We're going to Congress - we want to close the
loopholes," Batcha said. "The task force's work is important but it's
not the only thing we're doing."