The Great Organic Food Fraud

[hanselthecaretaker]

The Great Organic-Food Fraud

There’s no way to confirm that a crop was grown organically. Randy Constant exploited our trust in the labels—and made a fortune.

www.newyorker.com

TL;DR: “Certified Organic” food boughten in the last decade was likely mislabeled - intentionally - to *surprise* make moar monies.

Excerpt -


In the trader’s complaint to the N.O.P. (National Organic Program), he wrote, “I strongly feel that there is a major fraud occurring in the Organic Grain industry. Please do not take this lightly.” He described—astutely—what he suspected was happening: Constant was buying non-organic grain, attaching organic certifications to it, and selling it through Jericho Solutions, which provided another “layer to protect” him. A few weeks later, Matthew Michael, the N.O.P. compliance official, e-mailed the trader: “Our investigation did not find any apparent violations of U.S.D.A. organic regulations. The investigation is hereby closed.” The trader lost his mind. He told me, “I call this Michael guy and left him a fucking voice mail, saying, ‘My next call’s to the newspapers! This is bullshit. How can you guys not look into this?’ ” (Michael, who remains a U.S.D.A. official, did not respond to a request for comment.)



Gee what a nice thought.

But there’s some hope yet -

Double Victory! Monsanto pesticide and GMOs just got whacked!

We just made history! Center for Food Safety (CFS) just had one of the most important legal victories ever against pesticides and GMO crops.

www.centerforfoodsafety.org

 

[BrawlMan]

Thanks for the news. Thank God I never bought that much organic food. I've only en some a few times here and there. I think the last time I ever bought some was just before the summer started. Some organic strawberries. I prefer the standard.

 

[Hawki]

Jesus Christ, is anti-GMO nonsense still a thing? FFS, GMO's are a way of reducing pesticide use.

 

[tstorm823]

Jesus Christ, is anti-GMO nonsense still a thing? FFS, GMO's are a way of reducing pesticide use.

I agree with you as a general rule, but it's worth specifying that GMO's can be a way of reducing pesticide use, but also GMOs can basically be anything people want them to, so there are possible bad uses, which is basically true of everything.

 

[Kyrian007]

Organic... is just a premium mark-up. It really doesn't mean anything and is so loosely defined it can apply to either no crops or all crops depending on who you source. non-GMO is basically the same. It basically just means there isn't corn or soybean in a product. Or a handful of tropical fruits, or several non-edible textile and fuel crops. Even feed crops are (with the exception of soybean) mostly non-GMO. I laugh when I see wheat products labeled non-GMO. Just a blatant marketing gimmick and mark-up there considering there are no approved GMO wheat varieties in the U.S. And considering that even variety selection (think orange carrots) and migrating or crossing seed varieties is technically genetic modification... its about the first skill humankind began to develop, further back than the wheel or fire.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Jesus Christ, is anti-GMO nonsense still a thing? FFS, GMO's are a way of reducing pesticide use.

And if it happens that a lack of genetic diversity causes a massive crop failure, well, that's just the cost of doing business.

 

[SilentPony]

Culinary Expert here. Tons of organic food products are scams, but its also important to know what these terms mean.

Free-Range, like free-range chickens, simply means a grass floor. It has nothing to do with the size of their pen, being outside and getting exercise, being treated humanely, nothing. It just means whatever cage they're in doesn't have a metallic/heated floor.

Organic simply means there were no additives or chemicals in the item at the time of harvesting. So you could have organic wheat that's some hybrid monster that kills bugs with its claws and takes a bath in pesticides every day, and so long as they wait a few days before harvesting, its organic.

Non-GMO means absolutely nothing, because every single food we eat is GMO. It all is. Every last one has been bred for certain traits. Bigger, yellower bananas, rounder apples, broccoli, larger chickens. They all qualify as GMOs, and that label is just an extra $1.50 per pound.

Gluten Free/Cholesterol Free. These do have meanings, but they're used outside of that meaning. Cholesterol free means the food never had a liver. And yes, I've see gourmet bananas being marketed as "cholesterol free". The bananas. Livers.
Gluten free means the plant protein gluten is, in theory, not present, but there's some leeway of some 5-10%.

 

[Piscian]

For me I buy a fair amount of products of the "natural" variety, not because of the labels so much as certain products just taste better to me. Off the top of my head

I buy organic whole milk. I don't know the science behind it, but it taste better to me and last for weeks where as normal whole milk seems to go bad in a couple days. Im single though so a quart of milk takes me forever to go through.

I buy organic, cage free eggs. It specifically says chickens are not in cages as apposed to free range. Is it a scam? idk. I guess the chicken documentary got me so Ill just have to hope if they are lying somebody sues them.

I buy All natural creamer. This ones very specifically a taste thing. In the us all our creamer uses corn syrup or fake sugar and it tastes like tar. I spurge for the shit that has two ingredients cane sugar and cream. Im a fancy ***** who wants to wake up to good tasting coffee.

I buy all natural chicken but not organic or cage free. Thats a staple now though after that crisis where chicken meat was spreading diseases. There is no non-natural labeled chicken. I would buy cage free, but that stuffs like a billion dollars a lb. I ain't that rich.

Ive had the debate with people who love to lecture about how GMO is natural blah blah blah, but I think its a bit obtuse to go out of our way to defend corporations hyperbolically just to sound smart.

Yes non-gmo grocery products are a scam, but then we really need to also be pushing congress to pass laws on actually dangerous genetic and molecular mad science corporations do. Just because crossbreeding oranges is a mundane form of genetic modification doesn't mean that all genetic modification is totally safe for us or the environment or that corporations have our best interest in mind when doing it.

 

[Gergar12]

I agree with you as a general rule, but it's worth specifying that GMO's can be a way of reducing pesticide use, but also GMOs can basically be anything people want them to, so there are possible bad uses, which is basically true of everything.

I blame organic-loving hippies and the Green Party. Also, everyone who is dumb enough to buy overpriced celery water at Whole Foods.

 

[Phoenixmgs]