The Department of Agriculture’s withdrawal of an organic animal welfare rule and fraudulent organic imports were hot topics at Wednesday’s National Food Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. The conference, held by the Consumer Federation of America, is underwritten by some of the biggest food companies in the country, including Cargill, DowDuPont, General Mills, Walmart, and Tyson Foods.
At a panel on the future of organics, several questions were asked about the USDA’s decision in March to withdraw rulemaking around broadening animal welfare requirements for organic livestock producers. The decision angered many organic and consumer advocates, who had worked for years to push through the rulemaking.
During the panel, Laura Batcha, executive director and CEO of the Organic Trade Association, emphasized how much work it had taken to unite members of the National Organic Standards Board — a USDA advisory panel — around the rulemaking. Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food & Water Watch, noted that the withdrawal was in part a product of the current political environment food advocates face. “We roll regulations back now, we don’t put new ones forward,” she said of the climate.
Jennifer Tucker, associate deputy administrator of USDA’s National Organic Program, emphasized that USDA stands by its organic standards and that it remains committed to protecting the integrity of the organic label. When asked about how to square USDA’s commitment to organics with its withdrawal of the animal welfare rule, Tucker said that she doesn’t “see this administration walking away from the regulations.” She added that USDA’s main focus was now enforcement. “Instead of moving the goal posts on our regulations, let’s use the regulations that we have,” she said.
Four consumer and public interest groups have already filed a lawsuit challenging USDA’s action. The OTA had previously sued USDA for delaying the livestock rule, citing violations of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Another topic of discussion at the panel was the discovery of fraudulent organic imports reaching the United States. Batcha assured attendees that the organic industry is “rallying around” shoring up organic standards, including forming a committee within the OTA to create a guide to best practices for dealing with fraud. Members of OTA include food industry heavy-hitters like General Mills, Dean Foods, Horizon Organic, J.M. Smucker, and UNFI.
OTA also supports the Organic Farmer and Consumer Protection Act, a bill that would increase funding for international organic trade tracking and data collection. “I will say,” Batcha said, “fraud is rare. There’s so many transactions happening all the time…but that doesn’t diminish need to respond strongly to it.”
In other organic issues, Lovera noted that conversations among organic farmers and advocates are beginning to mirror conversations in other sectors of the agriculture industry, namely around consolidation and scale. She said the conversation about the organic livestock rule was ultimately “a proxy for a conversation about scale.” The rule would have had a greater effect on larger organic livestock producers, and was opposed by trade groups like the National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The organic industry has seen a trend of consolidation, as the biggest food companies buy up smaller organic manufacturers as a means of breaking into the consumer organic market.
Organic sales have grown dramatically in recent years, from $3.6 billion in sales in 1997 to $43.3 billion in 2015. According to the OTA, 82 percent of households buy some organic products each year, and organic farms are 35 percent more profitable than conventional farms.