Another Tainted Food Scandal

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Another tainted food scandal
In California,a big organicfertilizer companyqaLbus*cLsellingorganicfertilizer illegally spikedwith
ammoniumsulfate.Wait, is this d6javu? Didn't this ftaplrzt Waertth, with pork, in Ireland?Only this
time it throws a shadowon an industrythat alreadystruggleshard enoughto get taken seriously:
organics.
While both the fertilizer company(which owned l/3 of the market sharein California organics)and its
customers,large organicfarms like Earthboundand Driscoll, were certified organic,their practices,as
far as I'm concerned,run counterto what organicfarming ought to mean.creatingsoil fertility in a
sustainableway, with very few inputs (especiallyoff-farm inputs). "The kind of intensivemonocropping
that holds sway on California'sindustrial-scaleorganicfarms generallyignore that challenge,"writes[i1g
spoL-onTon Fhiifi-qQrvst
"They practiceinsteadwhat'slinown ai "iinput substitutioni-merely
looking for a relatively benign replacementfor industrialinputs like fertilizer and pesticide."
It's this kind of organicfarming-the big, profitable,smells-kinda-like-conventional
kind-that has
causedthe $20 billion jump in sales(more on that in my next post, on Thursday) In other pr<E, I've
supportedit, and I continueto maintainthat somefertilizers are betterthan others(except,of course,
when they'rejust pretendingto be), and if fertilizersmust be used,I'd ratherthey be of the lessnefarious
kind. But seriously:when will we understandthat organicfarming isn'tjust ConventionalLite?
This sort of bad news is in someways worsethan a sustainablefood safetyscandallike listeria in raw
milk or e. coli in organicspinach,becausewhereasthoseare the occasional(unfortunate)casualtiesof
food production,anyonewho lets ammoniumsulfateinto organicfertilizer is NOT a real believerin
organics.The calamitousfallout of their judgment taints the whole organicsphere.
What I don't understandis why, as reportedin the &.t,*4eafr' Bee,the presidentat the time of the
adulterationis still employed,at a basesalaryof $200,000,by the publicly tradedorganic-fertilizer
makerthat bought the companylast January.
"What a dismalstory,on so many levels,"wntesTtlaionrrlqgslnHutffa,"Cheating is the Achilles'
heel of organics.If irust goes,the organicindustry-collapses
like a irouseof cards."
Po stedon Ja n 6,2OO9 at 1:24 P M
Comments
This is SamanthaCabalunawith Earthbound Farm. I wanted to clear up a couple of misconceptionsand let er,erToneknorv
where we stand on this.
First, there are 150 farmers who grow Earthbound Farm organic produce on farms of all sizes,from 5 acresto 680 acres.Our
farmers aren't practicing "input substitution"' it really doesn't work. Our farmers use beneficial insect habitat, crop rotatron,
cover cropping, trap crops,4rostcrops and other very traditional, scale-neutralorganic practices.Hardly Convential Lite.
Earlhbound Farm, other organic farms, and those who made the consciousdecision to chooseorganic were defraudedby the
makersof Biolizer XN; this liquid organicfertilizer, which was endorsedas organicby the highly respectedOrganic
Matenals Review Institute (OMRI), was found to be fortified with non-organic nitrogen. As soon as we confirmed this, r,ve
notified all growers in the Earthbound Farm network of the findings and required that they review their inputs to determine
whether they may have used this parlicular fertilizer and to stop using it immediately if they were.
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As an organic leader, we are committed to the protection of organic integrity. Our farmers fertilize with a variety of methods,
including cover crops, so this liquid fertilizer was far from the only sourceof fertility for our crops. To protect tie organic
integrity of our crops and our farms from being victimized, again,we have instituted a stringent organic verification p-rocess
for all liquid fertilizers: any of our farmers using any kind of liquid fertilizer must subject iito nitrogen testing and process
validation by an rndependent,third-party lab, to ensurethat any product marketed as organic is legitimately oiganlc.
Since its founding on2Vz acresin 1984, EarthboundFarm has maintained an unwavering commitment to organic farming.
We are passionateabout its potential to produce the healthy food and to protect the environment. We think ii's important to
provide the organic choice to people all acrossthe country, in the supermarketswhere they shop every day.
This fertilizer problem underscoresthe crucial importance of strict adherenceto the organic standards,enforcementof those
standards,and transparencyat all levels. All of us who believe in the benefits of organic food and farming must take
responsibility for defending and protecting the integrity ofthe organic standards.
Po s t edby : S am an th a C a b a l u n a:,..,
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