CORNUCOPIA, Wis., June 19, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Organic industry watchdog, The Cornucopia Institute, has
released a groundbreaking, comprehensive report chronicling how a
small number of multibillion dollar agribusinesses came to dominate
the U.S. organic grain industry following systemic failures of the
USDA's National Organic Program (USDA-NOP) to curb infiltration of
questionable organic grain imports.
Cornucopia's report finds that
the U.S. became a dumping ground for imports of fraudulent organic
corn, soybeans, and other commodities after the European Union
cracked down on abuses originating in former Soviet Bloc countries
including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Romania, and Russia. Imports now make up
the majority of feed grains fed to domestic certified organic
livestock.
"With industry experts estimating that over 50% of organic corn
and 80-90% of soybeans are being imported, there is speculation
that if the USDA wakes up to do their job, feed shortages in the
organic marketplace could occur," said Mark
A. Kastel, Cornucopia's
codirector.
Kastel lamented that the USDA had "looked the other way" on
documentation concerning fraud from China and Eastern
Europe for over a decade. "The timing couldn't be worse. The
marketplace will likely create incentives for U.S. farmers to
convert more acreage to organic management, but this news is coming
too late in the 2018 growing season."
The story unveiled by Cornucopia is one of a U.S. market plagued by
feeble, often non-existent, enforcement by federal regulators and
organic certifiers, despite repeated calls for stricter oversight
and legal reform.
In 2014, the U.S. imported 14,000 metric tons of organic
soybeans from Turkey. That number skyrocketed to 165,000
metric tons in 2016. Organic corn imports from Turkey increased more dramatically, going from
15,000 metric tons in 2014 to more than 399,000 by 2016.
Based on available data sources, in the year 2015, the U.S.
imported over three and half times as much organic corn as the
country purportedly produced.
"What we have is a mathematical impossibility," said
Anne Ross, primary author of
Cornucopia's white paper.
"When organic acreage reported for these countries cannot produce
the organic grain yields that the U.S. is importing, either the
product is fake or the data is so unreliable that the U.S. ought to
ban organic shipments from countries where meaningful records on
organic production can't be extrapolated."
Interestingly, at least five foreign operations showing
affiliations with Turkish grain traders recently surrendered their
organic certifications.
More: https://bit.ly/2ynI9gV
CONTACT: Anne Ross, JD,
843-209-1732
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SOURCE The Cornucopia Institute