Today, their neighbors are much more accepting. Fitzgerald and his parents have spent over 20 years building relationships in their region while a much broader cultural shift has also taken place.
In that time, Fitzgerald Organics has expanded to 2,500 acres and the family has started a consulting business to help other commodity farmers transition to organic. “Our farm has grown as the industry has grown,” Fitzgerald said.
Now, they’re transitioning another 144 acres with the help of the Perennial Fund, which is putting $10 million into expanding organic acreage and has already funded 10 farmers transitioning 5,700 acres. It’s one of a number of new efforts to increase the number of certified organic acres across the U.S. Last year, the Rodale Institute launched an initiative with Cargill, the country’s largest private agriculture company, and Bell & Evans poultry company to transition 50,000 acres of crops grown for organic animal feed. And just last week, Daily Harvest announced a partnership with American Farmland Trust and California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) to offer grants of up to $10,000 to more than 100 fruit and vegetable farmers looking to transition to organic.
Meanwhile, demand for organics continues to grow. The Organic Trade Association (OTA) reported that sales of certified organic products (from both food and fiber) increased a record 12.4 percent to $62 billion in 2020, and surveys show more shoppers than ever care about the environmental impact of their food choices.
The story of organics is one of a disruptive underdog industry that has been growing steadily alongside the old guard for ages and is finally approaching the mainstream. But as organic products make it into the hands of more consumers than ever before, it’s clear that the industry is also at an important inflection point and is struggling on many fronts.
While “USDA Organic” used to be the only label on the shelf that quickly communicated a promise of environmental sustainability, there are now many other certifications that serve as add-ons to that label, as well as labels offering competing benefits like low-carbon and regenerative.
What is Organic Farming?- Organic Farming Definition and Examples
In just a few years, conventional farm groups have swooped in and claimed the banner of environmentally friendly farming through “regenerative practices,” and an increasing number of private and government dollars for climate mitigation have begun flowing toward conventional farms using practices like cover crops and reduced tillage. Case in point: When Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a long list of climate-related actions his USDA took during its first year, the word organic did not appear once.
“We can’t say that the organic label is losing its luster because people are questioning it. They’re questioning it because they should question it.”
And while the USDA Certified Organic label is still the only one in the country that is regulated by the federal government with third-party certification, some consumers appear to have lost faith in the idea that the seal can guarantee that their food has been produced in a way that’s better for people, animals, and the planet. In November, The New Yorker published a lengthy investigation called “The Great Organic Food Fraud” that followed a Midwest grain dealer who sold a large volume of conventional grain as organic before he was caught and prosecuted. The story highlighted loopholes in organic inspection and came to conclusions such as, “there’s no way to confirm that a crop was grown organically.”
“It left the impression, almost, that the system completely failed,” said Laura Batcha, the CEO and executive director of the OTA. “The disappointment [I felt] when I read the story was really about the missed opportunity to look under the hood and do a real post-mortem on how it happened and what’s been done since then.”
The Fight Over Who Owns Organic
Part of the reason The New Yorker and other outlets continue to publish pieces like it is the fact that some organic farmers have begun actively discrediting the USDA certification in its current state.
“We can’t say that the organic label is losing its luster because people are questioning it,” said Dave Chapman, an organic tomato farmer based in Vermont. “They’re questioning it because they should question it.”
Chapman is the executive director of the Real Organic Project (ROP), a nonprofit that offers a new, secondary organic certification to farms with practices in line with what he and others in the group see as “real” organic farming. Namely, it’s not just about the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides the farms don’t use; crops have to be grown in soil and animals have to be raised on pasture. To the farmers behind ROP, these components are the heart and soul of what organic means. They see the fact that the USDA has allowed hydroponic (soil-less) systems and large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to receive the certification as a betrayal of the movement. For the last two years in a row, ROP’s farms have doubled in number and the current network now includes 850 farms.
In their eyes, the root of the problem is that as organic gained market value, big companies wanted in on the profits and began finding ways to exploit the system, tilting the scales against the bulk of organic farmers, who operate small farms and prioritize biodiversity and soil health. For example, Costco and Walmart are now top sellers of organic food, and Cargill, Driscoll’s (which sells organic berries grown hydroponically), and Nutrien Ag Solutions (a major seller of chemical farm inputs) are all OTA members.
“They believe we need to build a big tent, and the bigger the tent, the [more likely it is] we’re going to change American agriculture,” Chapman said. “But I believe if you build a tent big enough for Godzilla, you’re going to change what’s happening in the tent.”
Batcha acknowledges there are disagreements among farmers, food companies, and organizations within organic, but she said it’s par for the course within a broad coalition and compares it to the way the Democratic party struggles to bring together progressives and moderates. But the differences within organic are further complicated by the fact that one of the partners in the coalition is a federal agency.
Laura Batcha of the OTA points out that organic is the only industry in which multiple stakeholders are arguing for more regulation, not less.
“From its inception, the law was so aspirational, and you’re taking these big aspirations and you’re trying to operationalize them in a partnership with the government,” Batcha said. “There’s a natural gap there.”
