For 15 years, USDA has allowed hydroponic crops to be sold as organic and, at a meeting this week in Jacksonville, Fla., the advisory National Organic Standards Board decided to let that practice continue. The board rejected, 8-7, a proposal to deny the USDA Organic label to hydoponics and aquaponics despite a long-running campaign to limit the label to plants grown in soil.
Traditionalists say soil health is a foundational part of organic agriculture. How can it be organic, they ask, if soil isn’t involved? “On the other side,” says NPR, are large-scale growers who say their hydroponic crops “are delivering what consumers expect from that organic label: Vegetables grown without synthetic pesticides, year-round and affordably.” Wholsum Harvest says hydroponic tomatoes require one-fifth as much water and less land than field-grown tomatoes.
“The battle is over more than philosophy. It’s about market share. Hydroponic methods, deployed on an industrial scale, are taking over an increasing share of sales to supermarkets,” said NPR. The Cornucopia Institute, a self-described organic watchdog group, filed a complaint with USDA a year ago saying the government “has quietly allowed a flood of hydroponically produced fruits and vegetables, largely imported, to be illegally labeled and sold as ‘organic,’” to the detriment of U.S. producers. Cornucopia tends to side with smaller-sized producers.
The NOSB voted 14-0, with one abstention, to make aeroponics a prohibited practice, said Cornucopia and the Coalition for Sustainable Organics. “The recommendations will go to the USDA, which will decide whether to adopt them through a formal rulemaking process,” said The Packer.