For the Organic Soul of America
Dear brothers and sisters,
All of a sudden, hydroponic production of fruits and vegetables, has become a tsunami. It seems that nothing can withstand it.
Dave Chapman, the Vermont farmer who first raised the alarm about chemical soup farming feigning as “organic” says,” in five years virtually all supermarket certified organic tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers will be hydroponic.” Indeed, those “organic” berries and “organic” tomatoes that you find on store shelves in the midst of winter, are grown in Mexico in enormous, industrial greenhouses.
Dave has just issued a magnificent newsletter. It delineates the setback after setback that organic standards have received in the last year. Yet, it is, at the same time, a celebration of the resourcefulness of the people of this land.It tells of the formation of the Real Organic Project that will work to support real organic farming.
We feel privileged to bring Dave’s newsletter it to you.
With appreciation and respect,
Jesse Schwartz PhD
President
Living Tree Community Foods
It has not been a good year for the National Organic Program. Since the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) November meeting at Jacksonville failed to prohibit HYDRO, the organic community has gone through a period of questioning to find the path forward. We are wrestling with the basic question, “Can we trust the USDA to protect organic integrity?”
Following a series of devastating articles about the 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.
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 egg operations: Mission Accomplished.
 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.
 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.
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