http://www.cfact.org/2013/06/19/how-safe-is-your-organic-food/
There has been a recall for certified organic berries sold at Costco. According to the CDC(Center for Disease Control) at least 106 people in 8 states contracted hepatitis A, which is liver disease that can last for weeks or even months and can actually be deadly, after they ate Townsend Farms frozen berries that were bought at the box store retailer. The item in question was Organic Antioxidant Blend Frozen Berry and Pomegranate Mix- was apparently purchased in April. The CDC says that Costco removed the item from its shelves and Townsend Farms voluntarily recalled the item but what about those who certify food organic? What is their response?
Rather than rigorously test organic crops for lethal pathogens resulting from improper composting of manure, authorities in the United States and Canada continue to rely on paperwork to prove the safety of these products and organic activists like Christine Bushway- who is quoted as saying the following: "Today's organic consumer is well informed. They have made the connection between quality of life and their own personal responsibility as for how it's going to play out for them. They understand the risks- the effects of hormones, GMOs, antibiotics, and pesticides- and that is why they are buying organic" by the way Bushway is the Executive Director of the Organic Trade Association and this quote was from Naturally Savvy August 2012- are okay with this without considering that it's actually untested organic products, and not thoroughly tested genetically modified food(GM) varieties, that may pose a risk.
You heard this right, organic crops are not tested. They are not tested to ensure things like synthetic pesticides are avoided or things like feces are kept out of the organic food chain. This is based on faith like record checking and a hope that nothing happens and it is this lack of scientific rigor that has led to the Townsend fiasco. Sure we bitch about GMOs not being tested enough and the health issues associated like cancer and infertility but shouldn't we test all food regardless if their GMO or not to make sure they are safe to eat??
I can understand if you see something that is labeled certified organic that the term means it was tested after all is that what the term like light bulbs being 100w or motor oil that is certified 10W30. But in the organic industry according to this article it does it is not what it means in the organic industry.
In response to this scandal, supporters of the status quo in the American organic industry are trying to distance themselves as much as they can between certified organic and food safety, as if to make the excuse that these are totally separate issues when in reality they are not. "We don't see that organic standards necessarily overlap with food safety standards"-said Brenda Book with the Washington State Department of Agriculture(WSDA) . "One thing organic certification should not be confused with... is a food safety standard"
Book sits in a chair that was once occupied by Miles V. McEvoy, the current Deputy Administrator of the USDA's National Organic Program(NOP). Back when he held Book's position with the WSDA, to his credit, one of the few people in America doing testing on organic food and when he brought is commitment to science with him when he moved to the USDA in Washington, DC in 2008. He tried to do something that was unprecedented at the national level: to announce the beginning of testing to ensure prohibited substances and excluded methods were not being used on organic farms as per USDA NOP 205.670. It was something the Consumers Union(the policy of Consumer Reports) had called for more than a decade earlier.
Unfortunately with most good ideas brought to Capitol Hill, it took a long time for McEvoy to get others to act on his promise. The final program was so watered down to only include a small fraction (5%) of the more than $33 billion dollars worth of organic crops the USDA certifies every year, with little and likely zero testing of foreign organic crops, like the one's implicated in the current hepatitis outbreak and which provide the majority of the organic industry the USDA certifies for sale every year in America. And yet in response to this, apologists like Book keep making excuses like "organic certifiers are concerned with prohibited materials side of contamination over the microbial variety" as if to imply McEvoy's efforts to improve organic certification more scientific if someone uses illegal pesticides. You would think also that the USDA would clamp down on the prohibited use of pesticides when people pay huge amounts of money for organic food but shouldn't we also expect to make sure organic food has no fecal material in it???
The irony is insane. Organic activists, those who are registered with the IRS as non-governmental organizations or foundations spend millions of tax free money on anti-GMO initiatives which is fine but they fail to see that the other threat to our food supply is untested organic food as well which could have natural bacteria contaminating it but yet want all GMOs to be tested which is fine but feels rather hypocritical when they want GMOs to be tested but not organic crops to make sure there is no contamination of any kind fecal or pesticidal.
Now the author of this article actually was an organic farmer and USDA contract inspector and while the USDA organic certification has always been about food safety it is not enforced enough and while everyone attacks GMOs (I know I have been one of them because of Monsanto's bogus lawsuits against farmers who ended up with GM organisms in their crops when they didn't even grow them in the first place and that is not right at all and the whole 9 yards) but do not want to improve upon how to keep organic food safe. It almost seems that the powers at be in the organic industry have put their blinders on and have showing their true colors in the sense when it has come to this issue and I find that very disturbing..
Anyway regardless of what we think of GMOs and organic food, I think we should all be in agreement that any crop whether GMO or not needs to be tested at a scientific level so that we can make better choices at the grocery store and be better informed and that is all I and this article was trying to point out..
