Dive Brief:
- The Cornucopia Institute has issued a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General requesting an independent audit of the National Organic Program (NOP), according to a news release.
- Cornucopia, an industry watchdog and farm policy research group, claims that the NOP's lack of enforcement in organic agriculture has enabled multinational corporate agribusinesses to edge out smaller family-scale farmers, which the organization says puts the integrity of the organic label at risk.
- Cornucopia cited a number of enforcement violations, including "soil-less hydroponic/container growing, which substitutes liquid fertilizers for careful stewardship of soil; allowing documented cases of 'willful' violations on factory dairies confining livestock instead of grazing; and allowing as many as 200,000 'organic' chickens to be kept in single buildings without outdoor access," according to the news release.
Dive Insight:
This wouldn't be the first time The Cornucopia Institute has targeted the NOP; the organization has filed multiple lawsuits against the NOP this year. And if the federal program doesn't change its certification and enforcement protocols, this won't be Cornucopia's last complaint.
The exponential increase in available organic food and beverage products and ingredients has been a boon for the industry. However, that growth has also created unsustainable challenges, such as a lack of enough oversight — or as Cornucopia claims, enforcement of standards already in place — to ensure that any product bearing the "organic" label abides by strict regulations. Some of these issues — like whether hydroponic crops align with organic standards — are pending before the National Organic Standards Board.
If the NOP cannot determine how to better regulate and enforce standards for U.S. organic certification, this could jeopardize the entire organics industry. Consumers want to be able to trust product labels, particularly those the federal government certifies. If they can't, they may not be willing to continue to buy organic products.
Undermining of the bureaucratic end of the program could be a major blow to the farmers and manufacturers that have committed to abiding by the rigorous standards the USDA organic certification program says it has in place. And that's not to mention the costs incurred for the certification itself and any changes made to facilities, equipment and crops.
One solution here is better traceability and transparency from end to end of the organics supply chain to ensure each level maintains USDA certification standards. However, Cornucopia claims that even when the NOP is aware of violations, the program considers certain organic certifiers to be "too big to fail," according to the news release.