Organic 2.0
Advancing the Organic Movement
By Barbara Haumann and Jennifer Rose
The year 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the monumental passing of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990 and we have much to celebrate. Over the past two decades, Organic 1.0, the first phase of the organic movement, has taken organic from an unknown idealistic vision to a more than $26 billion industry, supported by nearly five million acres of organic farmland.
But the work is far from finished.
Organic still represented only 3.7 percent of total grocery sales in 2009.
That means that over 95 percent of the products consumed in the United States continue to be grown using chemical-based agriculture. It’s time to prepare for the next phase of the organic revolution—Organic 2.0.
This new, updated version of the organic movement will need to feature:
• Additional scientific research proving the benefits of organic, and the negatives of chemical agriculture
• An expansion of organic production and supply to support worldwide growth
• Increased governmental support of organic throughout all agencies within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• Negotiations toward global regulatory harmonization to eliminate international trade barriers
• Data to aid organic farmers in crop disease prevention, attaining better yields, plant breeding and soil building
• Outreach efforts to connect with new consumers through online social media communities such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other new interactive technologies
• A new crop of leaders to help steer the movement with passion
Proving the Benefits
As we move into the next phase of the revolution, one major opportunity will be to further scientifically prove the benefits of organic agriculture, uncover the negative effects of chemical farming, and—even more importantly—spread the word about these findings in a way that speaks to today’s consumers.
In the last 10 years alone, hundreds of studies have come out in support of organic. As this evidence continues to mount, the science becomes harder for consumers and the government to ignore. Two recent reports, released this past spring, illustrate this point.
The Cancer-Pesticide Link. In May 2010, the President’s Cancer Panel issued a prestigious report that supports the need to drastically reduce chemical exposure in the American environment and diet. Although the report—entitled Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now—never directly uses the “O” word, it exhorts consumers to “choose food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, and growth hormones to help decrease their exposure to environmental chemicals that can increase their risk of contracting cancer.” What fits this description? Foods produced using organic practices.
“Exposure to pesticides can be decreased by choosing, to the extent possible, food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers…Similarly, exposure to antibiotics, growth hormones, and toxic run-off from livestock feed lots can be minimized by eating free-range meat raised without these medications,” states the report, which was submitted to President Obama by Dr. LaSalle Leffall, Jr., an oncologist and professor of surgery at Howard University, and Dr. Margaret L. Kripke, an immunologist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
“The American people—even before they are born—are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures,” the panel wrote in a letter to President Obama. It added, “The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”
As Christine Bushway, OTA’s executive director, points out, “Organic food production and processing represent the only system that uses certification and inspection to verify that these chemicals are not used on the farm—all the way to our dinner tables.”
Pesticides and ADHD. On the heels of the President’s Cancer Panel report, a study was published in the June issue of Pediatrics that concluded that exposure to organophosphate pesticides at levels common among U.S. children may contribute to the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in these children.
The article reported findings from a study examining the association between urinary concentrations of metabolites of organophosphates and ADHD in children ages 8 to 15. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers led by Maryse Bouchard, a researcher in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Montreal, analyzed the levels of pesticide metabolites in the urine of 1,139 children and found that children with above-average levels had roughly twice the odds of being diagnosed with ADHD.
“The findings in this new study are compelling and support several other studies linking exposures to OP insecticides to neurological development problems including ADHD and autism,” says Dr. Charles Benbrook, chief scientist of The Organic Center. Benbrook adds, “Pregnant women and children in America on average consume two to three servings of food containing residues of OP insecticides, and those unlucky ones that buy fruit and vegetables with relatively high residues are clearly at increased risk.”
Hopefully, this study—the largest of its kind so far—will help consumers realize that these chemicals are not harmless, as was once believed by many. Historically, organophosphates were developed for use in chemical warfare because they are known to be toxic to the nervous system. These same organophosphate compounds are now used in agriculture to kill pests, and are proving to be dangerous to humans as well.
In coming years, it’s conceivable that the environmental evidence linking chemical-based agriculture practices to health issues will become more clear, proving conclusively the many benefits that organic agriculture has to offer farmers, the land, our water supply, the air, and ultimately, the health of the planet and those living on it. As a result, demand for organic products will soar, thus encouraging more farmers to convert to organic production.
Launching a National Organic Plan of Action
Domestic growth of organic production is an important step in Organic 2.0, and is one of the goals targeted by the National Organic Action Plan (NOAP) report released earlier this year by the National Organic Coalition (NOC), a nongovernmental organization. Based on the input from a diverse group of U.S. stakeholders, the NOAP calls for the creation of an expanded organic policy agenda that focuses on the broad social, environmental, and health values that organic agriculture offers U.S citizens. The goal of the NOAP is to establish organic as the foundation for food and agricultural production systems across the United States. This will naturally lead to an increase in domestic supply.
“Most countries throughout the world—with exception to the United States—already have government-initiated national organic action plans in place to support the growth of organic agriculture,” says Liana Hoodes, director of the NOC. “These plans are developed by the governments in those countries because they see the benefits that organic offers to their country from an overall environmental, health and social perspective. In contrast, to protect the interest of conventional agriculture, USDA originally set up the National Organic Program as a ‘marketing program’ for specialty goods. But the organic movement is about so much more than just a marketing label, and the government is starting to see the benefits too.”
Putting the Plan into Action. While the NOC will be trying to get the federal government to back larger national goals outlined in the NOAP, Hoodes says the organization is also hoping that states, regions, and the marketplace develop their own organic action plans. NOAP’s specific recommendations concerning expanding organic production call for:
• Doubling the amount of organic products and the number of farms, acreage, public lands and animals under organic management every five years through 2020
• Expanding local organic seed production capacities, with a benchmark of meeting 50 percent of all local organic seed needs by 2020
• Increasing local organic production and processing by 50 percent by 2020, by increasing the infrastructure of organic regional food systems with government financial assistance
• Increasing organic supplies to ensure the commercial availability of all agriculture-based organic ingredients contained in processed foods by 2014, including minor ingredients, seeds and livestock feed
As the NOAP report points out, organic agriculture provides multiple solutions and benefits. “Its system of production can produce high-yielding crops, enhance food security and independence, reduce the adverse impacts of agriculture on the environment and climate change, and contribute to the development of food self-sufficient and sustainable communities. The largely untapped potential of organic to provide concrete and long-lasting solutions to a variety of persistent problems has inspired farmers and non-farmers alike to join grassroots movements to strengthen the integrity of organic, grow markets for organic products, and facilitate universal access to healthy, organic food,” according to Hoodes and Michael Sligh, NOC’s legislative director.
NOAP also outlined the following overarching principles to advance organic agriculture and trade:
• Maintain and continuously improve organic quality and integrity
• Increase domestic organic production by supporting farm and market diversity
• Ensure a fair marketplace for small, medium-sized, and family farmers and workers
• Maximize organic production potential by increasing the U.S. produced share of organic products in the domestic marketplace
• Safeguard the environment and conserve biodiversity
• Enhance access to healthy, organically grown, fresh food for people of all income levels
• Move society towards more socially just and humane food and agricultural production systems
The full NOAP can be downloaded at www.nationalorganiccoalition.org.
Gaining Government Support
For widespread growth of organic and the benefits to society that come along with it, governmental support is critical. As mentioned above, the U.S. government has only recently begun to acknowledge the multitude of health and environmental benefits associated with organic and sustainable methods of food production. However, the changes that have come about in the new administration are encouraging. The National Organic Program (NOP) is now an independent program within USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, and Miles McEvoy, a leader within the organic movement, is its first deputy administrator. Meanwhile, top USDA officials, Secretary Tom Vilsack and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, have shown support for a strong NOP. As proof of this, USDA has doubled the budget and staff of the NOP, and has begun to move beyond the NOP to all USDA agencies for more extensive work on organic. Clearly, the time is ripe for the government to forge a comprehensive organic agenda, created in partnership with the wide range of stakeholders in the organic community, as envisioned 20 years ago by the drafters of Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA).
In April, USDA advertised a new position to coordinate organic projects across all its agencies. Mark Lipson, who had served as senior policy analyst at the Organic Farming Research Foundation, accepted the new position of program specialist for organic farming at USDA in Washington, D.C. and started work on June 14. According to the job description, this position will coordinate development of a national organic farm plan, which NOAP stakeholders have sought. In addition, he is charged with identifying, monitoring and evaluating organic activities across agencies within the USDA.
With the initiative to integrate organic across agencies within USDA, the organic sector can expect to gain ground in conservation and nutrition programs, as well as in marketing and data collection.
OTA is looking to identify opportunities within the USDA for enhanced or new programs for organic producers and handlers. These could include programs that would incorporate organic into Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition programs nationwide, provide organic information at all Farm Service Agency offices, establish an organic small-business technical-assistance service, and allocate money to 4-H clubs to educate youth on organic farming.
Working Toward Global Regulatory Harmonization
As we go into the next phase of Organic 2.0, and the organic industry becomes more of a global marketplace, we must find ways to make international trade more efficient. With differences in standards among countries, various barriers to trade of organic products have arisen. The next stage, which we have already entered, is to negotiate agreements between countries throughout the world to facilitate organic trade. The historic achievement of an equivalency agreement between the United States and Canada in 2009 marked the beginning of this effort. The sector can anticipate more negotiations for further agreements, with the future ultimately offering an era of harmonization, where standards are common.
Currently, discussions are moving forward between the United States and the EU on possible equivalence, as well as trade discussions with the Republic of South Korea and resolution of trade issues at ports of entry around the world. In May, OTA formed a U.S.-EU Equivalence Task Force whose mandate is to monitor, analyze and discuss emerging issues from organic equivalency discussions between the two trading partners. OTA is also establishing a U.S.-Mexico Task Force, and the U.S.-Canada Task Force will remain active throughout the implementation. In addition to Canada, OTA has provided technical and strategic support for the negotiation of a trade arrangement with Taiwan and a letter of agreement with Japan.
Expanding Research to Support the Movement
Aside from looking at the nutritional attributes of organic food, many questions still need to be researched in the areas of organic agricultural production and trade to support farmers and manufacturers. In addition, research is critical in illustrating the need for the NOAP to both government and the public. Data to Support Organic Agricultural Development. In 2007, the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) published its National Organic Research Agenda 2007, which outlined a number of research needs for organic agriculture. The intention was to inspire research to help organic farmers and improve the agricultural, environmental and economic performance of their production systems. It addressed four production-related topics:
• soil microbial life, fertility management, and soil quality;
• systemic management of plant pests (weeds, insects, diseases);
• organic livestock and poultry management systems; and
• breeding and genetics
Currently, OFRF is working on the Seed Matters project launched by the Clif Bar Family Foundation. The foundation has pledged $500,000 over five years to OFRF, the Organic Seed Alliance, and the Center for Food Safety to support work to conserve genetic diversity, protect seed integrity, and promote organic seed research on topics such as seed processing, storage, quality, and managing seedling diseases.
In addition to the projects noted above, Jane Sooby, OFRF’s grants program director, has identified a continuing need for research regarding marketing alternatives for farmers, post-harvest procedures to maintain quality, and overall food safety. Sooby explains that pending food safety legislation, which requires expensive HAACP programs, may put a lot of pressure on small family farms. Sooby says there is a need for lower-cost systems to assess whether or not procedures have been followed and points out, “Organic certification already offers a model for a food safety audit trail and that needs to be acknowledged.”
In 2009, the House passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act (H.R. 2749), which acknowledges that organic production warrants special consideration. Now pending before the Senate, the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) includes provisions that give National Organic Program representatives input into establishing science-based minimum standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables, and ensure that no requirements conflict with or duplicate the requirements of the NOP. As of early June, the pending legislation had not yet been brought to the Senate floor. OTA and the industry will continue to work with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and USDA to make sure organic practices are recognized in any food safety requirements.
Meanwhile, USDA’s Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) competitive grants have funded several organic research projects. In addition, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) poultry research facility in Fayetteville, AR, recently was granted organic certification. At that facility, researchers will examine ways of using natural compounds to reduce foodborne pathogens and diseases in organic poultry. An Organic Poultry Advisory Board has also been formed to solve pathogen and disease issues on organic poultry farms.
On another front, more land-grant colleges have taken steps to include organic agricultural programs among their offerings in recent years. For instance, the University of Georgia now offers an organic certificate program. “Students and faculty are the ones who have been calling for these programs,” Sooby points out.
Proving the Environmental and Social Benefits of Organic. OFRF has in the pipeline a new project to study the multiple benefits of organic agriculture. The project will include a comprehensive literature review to determine to what degree organic farming practices provide social, health, environmental and economic benefits. Project findings are slated for publication in mid-2011.
With clean water becoming increasingly scarce, the organic industry’s ability to help protect the nation’s water supply is also generating interest. USDA’s Organic Transitions grant funding during 2009 included three water quality projects that will most likely strengthen the argument for a government-supported NOAP:
• Enhancing Farmland Water Quality and Availability through Soil-Building Crop Rotations and Organic Practices, undertaken at Iowa State University;
• Water Quality Evaluation of Long-Term Organic and Conventional Vegetable Production Under Conservation and Conventional Tillage, at North Carolina State University, and
• Impact of Organic Animal Production Systems on Water Quality and Quantity in Ohio, at Ohio State University.
These studies and other future research findings that show the sustainability of organic agriculture from social, environmental, and economic points of view will bode well for advancing organic on the agricultural front as well as in the marketplace.
Connecting with the Next Generation of Consumers
Another important component in the future of organic is the expectations of the next generation of consumers.
Today’s Organic Consumer. OTA’s 2009 U.S. Families’ Organic Attitudes and Beliefs Study provides a number of valuable insights into the new generation of consumers. It reveals, for example, that these consumers actively incorporate organic into their lives and their children’s lives, in terms of their product choices, the topics they choose to discuss, and the social/environmental activities in which they take part. They also see choosing organic as a means to support their health and the health of their children. Additionally, the study’s findings suggest that the new generation of organic consumers will be more racially diverse and will come from a wider spectrum of educational and economic backgrounds. These findings counter perceptions of organic as a product category limited to homogenous, wealthy and highly educated consumers.
Reconnecting with Food. Another defining characteristic of the next generation is their connection to their food. Due in part to the growth of school gardens, which have given children from across social, political, economic and racial lines first-hand exposure to organic foods and agricultural practices, these consumers will both understand and appreciate where their food comes from.
Grassroots Activism through Social Media. Through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any number of other social media outlets, the new generation of consumers will be able to identify their own set of informational priorities, and the corresponding actions they wish to take, rather than relying on outside media outlets to perform these functions. The next generation of consumers is empowered not only to educate themselves, but to spread the word to their global community through online media. The next phase, Organic 2.0, requires those in the organic industry to fully embrace online communities and learn how to interact within them.
An example of an online tool spreading awareness is the “What’s On My Food?” smart-phone application from the Pesticide Action Network, which allows consumers to enter a particular food before they eat it, and find out how many pesticides were used in its production. Organic Valley has also launched “Organic Counts,” an online calculator that helps you track how much pesticide usage you prevent by purchasing their organic products. Users can share their results with friends through Twitter and Facebook.
Social media was also at the heart of the Organic Trade Association’s recent “Organic. It’s Worth It in Schools” campaign, which used various social media outlets and e-newsletters to inspire local communities to “vote” for a school to win an organic garden or organic food vending machine. The result was the formation of online communities that rallied behind their local schools and encouraged others to do the same. After just three and a half months, OTA’s campaign generated more than 15,500 newsletter signups, and prompted more than 1,100 schools across America to participate. The campaign helped to dramatically increase traffic to OTA’s consumer website, www.OrganicItsWorthIt.org, which received more than 10,000 site visits in the last month of the campaign—a huge increase over the 1,000 visits it received in March and 650 visits in February. This campaign demonstrated the powerful role that social media can play in achieving organizational goals that go beyond the social media outlets themselves.
Cultivating New Leadership
The organic industry has been fortunate to have had strong leadership to this point. The next 20 years are likely to be no different, but it is important to encourage the next group of leaders to take on that role.
The good news is that there is a new generation of passionate leaders stepping up to the plate—including Jake Lewin (chief certification officer of CCOF and member of the OMRI board), Heather Darby (an extension agent and member of the OFRF board), Nicole Dawes (CEO of Late July Organic Snacks and member of the OTA Board), and Ryan Black (CEO of Sambazon and member of The Organic Center board). They have taken up leadership positions both within their organic companies and as board members of organizations working on behalf of the organic industry as a whole, and are committed to keeping the organic industry moving forward. Although essential groundwork has been laid by their predecessors, this new crop of organic leaders will not be without their own challenges. From Lewin’s perspective, these challenges will take place in both the domestic and international arenas.
“At the domestic level, we need to make sure that organic standards do not stagnate,” Lewin says. “We have to make sure that they continue to meet the changing needs of consumers and the organic industry alike.” Internationally, Lewin sees challenges around the harmonization of standards. “We need to remain focused on the fundamentals of organic and avoid becoming mired in small differences,” he states. To do otherwise, he says, will impair international organic trade.
In Darby’s view, the challenges that lie ahead center around production. “We have come a long way during the past two decades in terms of organic production,” she says. “Now we need to turn our attention to producing more and producing better.” That will require more focused, applied research, Darby says, as well as better tools to monitor progress and manage fertility. As she points out, “These tools exist for conventional agriculture. We need to find a way to have access to comparable tools for the organic system.”
Dawes and Black offer still other perspectives on the challenges that the organic industry is likely to contend with over the next 20 years. For Dawes, “green-washing” is among the greatest hurdles organic will have to overcome if it wishes to grow its market share. “We need to draw a hard line in the sand,” she says, “so that it is clear to consumers that organic is not the same as natural, and that organic is the best product out there.”
Black agrees, noting, “There are numerous interests whose bottom lines are in contradiction to the organic movement. These include processed food companies, agri giants, Monsanto...the list goes on. The spin that they put on the truth makes it that much harder.” He adds that the organic industry will need to address challenges brought about by confusion over whether organic food is more nutritious than its conventional counterpart, notions that organic is more expensive, and claims that organic standards are being weakened.
In spite of these challenges, each of these individuals is optimistic that the next 20 years also hold numerous opportunities for the organic industry.
“There is more money for organic in the national budget than ever before, which creates tremendous opportunities to move organic research forward,” notes Darby. “We can develop new techniques and perfect old ones, and in the process give organic the edge it needs to match—if not outperform—the competition.” At the same time, Darby predicts that increased funding will help attract a new generation of farmers to organic. “They will see that the prospects are good for organic, and that it’s a field in which they can thrive,” she explains.
According to Dawes, the future also looks bright in terms of consumer education. “As new studies emerge, we will be able to offer consumers more hard numbers and equip them with the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions,” she says.
Lewin sums these opportunities up best. “We are at a critical point in the history of the organic industry,” he says. “We have been given the gift of growth and along with it the opportunity to make organic food and farming part of every American’s life. It’s our responsibility as leaders to see that we make the most of that opportunity, so that the generations that follow us inherit a world that is as good as, if not better than, the one we have now.”
Barbara Haumann is senior writer/editor for the Organic Trade Association (www.ota.com) and can be reached at bhaumann@ota.com. Her colleague, Jennifer Rose, is OTA’s new media and consumer outreach manager and can be reached at jrose@ota.com.
