In the US changes are underway to allow 38 non-organic ingredients in food certified as organic. Increasingly food companies want to sell certified organic food containing non-organic ingredients when organic ingredients are not available.
This comes amid the realization that for some time now beer sold in the US as certified organic has in fact contained non-organic hops. This is due to an interesting loophole in the organic certification rules that allows food in the US to be certified organic when up to 5% of it’s ingredients are non-organic.
There are similar moves in Europe to centralize organic certification on a EU level, allow 5% non-organic ingredients and allow 0.9% GM ingredients. Many people may find it difficult to find anything wrong with this last point, 0.9% GM ingredients, because they think some contamination is inevitable. In fact by being this lax simply guarantees our food supply will become contaminated to this level. It’s not inevitable and if we buy food expecting it to be GM free, it should simply be GM free.
Also while food in Europe containing genetically modified organisms are considered GM, food that is made with the assistance of GM organisms is not. For example the artificial sweetener aspartame, ‘vegetarian’ rennet in hard cheeses as well as many food supplements fall into this category and are allowed in certified organic foods.
A similar thing happened with Fair Trade certification. We all want to believe we can help people in the developing world by spending more money on Fair Trade products. Increasingly there are stories of very lax enforcement of Fair Trade standards and of farmers who aren’t paid at all for their products. Even when the rules are followed, and farmers are paid, the extra they receive under Fair Trade schemes is very small compared to the extra we as consumers pay for the products.
If you want organic food, the only meaningful way to get it is growing it yourself or buying it from a local source you trust. You also simply have to avoid processed foods. The same thing is true with Fair Trade. We all live near farmers or other local businesses who are having a hard time in the current economy, and it’s better to spend your money on these people than on goods imported half way across the world with a meaningless certification attached to them.
Not only are they screwing with organic certification, they’re also trying to screw with what can be called “chocolate” as opposed to “chocolate flavored.” At least there’s been a howl of protest about what the French call cocholat (if I’m recalling that correctly… it’s a play on “cochon.”)
Hi Marion,
That’s a good point too. There was just an editorial in the NYT about this.
It seems so dispiriting. We can’t even seem to hold the line. The whole world has gone mad with horrid processed food full of additives and we can’t seem to remain a minority true to ourselves. Instead we have to crave the almighty “market” and whittle away at our concepts – like organic, and fair trade and trust me. Thanks for the post.
Well said…and sadly true. How did it all become so complicated? It is becoming a full time job just reading about the constant changes!
I worry about the farms that say they are Organic now…but what have they been dumping in their soil for the past x number of years (oh yeah, that is the trust factor you are talking about….)