It is sad to see the extent of the fraud perpetuated in the food industry. The more deeply I become involved in the industry, the more I see manufacturers slant and spin messages, fib on packaging, and generally mislead the public about just what goes in to the food we buy. This post will be the first part of several on this subject, but since the subject is so depressing I promise to break up the postings with happier topics!

Let’s start with something that does not impact American Sweet Bean edamame directly – certified organic products. You know the label – the green and white circle appearing on a package that tells us the product meets USDA requirements for organic production. Ha! Be careful what you believe, and certainly be careful about how much faith you put in that government certification. I am going to give you at least one more tool to qualify your food purchases, and one more complaint with the way our government muddles our food system.

First, some background… For many good reasons, the USDA decided to standardize requirements for calling food “organic.” We won’t go in to the merits of this decision, but generally speaking it helped consumers understand they were buying food grown and processed in a defined, uniform way. The organic standards are published and available for anyone to read. As an example, federal standards insure that an organic carrot in Ohio has met the same standards as an organic carrot in California. Uniformity can be a good thing.

Farmers and processors who want to label their product as certified organic must follow strict guidelines for their crop and product. They need to pay a licensing fee and they are required to have on-site inspections by a licensed inspector. Producers must make their records available for review, and any deficiencies must be fixed immediately. A mistake in understanding the guidelines… an attempt to “cut a corner”… the use of an unapproved technique… All of these infractions (and many more) will result in the loss of organic certification. Growing and processing organic food requires pervasive changes in farming and processing behavior, and it is a process that is done under regular and persistent scrutiny of inspectors. US farmers work hard to earn and maintain their organic certification.

So far, so good. Organic food bears the government label and we can buy it with the certainty that another level of standards have been adhered to when the food was raised and processed. In fact, consumers have become accustomed to paying more for organic food. If all the extra work goes in to that food, then a little extra expense seems to be justified. After all, that green and white logo from the US Government tells me I am getting a great product. Right? Not so fast…

The extra step you need to take when buying food – any food - is to look for something called the Country of Origin – or in food industry lingo, the COO. If the COO is the United States, you can be reasonably sure the organic certifications were earned with a mountain of paperwork, inspectors, and general community scrutiny to back up the claim. But what if the country of origin is not the United States? What if the “organic” product comes from Mexico? Or Guatemala? Or China? Can you be certain the same standards have been applied in the “organic” production of these crops? I don’t think so.

Our US Department of Agriculture will assure you foreign produced food follows the same standards. They will tell you they have contracted inspectors that make certain foreign producers meet the requirements of the organic standard. And I think that some foreign producers do meet the standard. But really – do we want to use the US Government “seal of approval” on foreign products? Should we use a tax-payer supported system to endorse foreign food? Especially food that competes with US-grown products? The assurances we have of producers doing the right thing – these are poorly inspected, poorly verified, and flimsy assurances at best.

I have been in farm fields and food factories around the world. I have friends who produce great products in the US and in foreign countries. Foreign production is not always a bad thing, and a lot of times it is a necessity. (For example, we don’t grow many bananas in the US!) But by allowing the USDA Certified Organic label on foreign food, we mislead the consumer and undermine our own producers.

Look for the “country of origin” label on your food – I hope it becomes a habit for you. And when you are thinking about how our government is involved in our food supply, you can decide if it makes sense for our tax dollars to be used to endorse foreign food. The next time you are at the farmer’s market or talking to an organic farmer, ask them what they think about having a Chinese competitor that has “earned” the same organic certification they have. I bet you will have an interesting conversation!