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Whole Foods and Chinese Organic
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 20:54:17 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks) Date: March 4, 2010 4:02:26 AM EST To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Whole Foods and Chinese Organic [Note: This item comes from friend Scott McNeil. DLH] From: Scott McNeil <mcneil () globaldesktop com> Date: March 1, 2010 10:24:17 PM PST To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> Subject: Whole Foods and Chinese Organic Hi Dewayne, I spent a couple of hours tonight researching and writing the following email. You may find it interesting... :-) Today I was sent a video of a news story on the American chain supermarket Whole Foods (NasdaqGS: WFMI). The story is a over a year old and is told in an urgent style typical of US news. Regardless, the content of the story is quite interesting. It is from the American TV station WJLA in Washington DC: Whole Foods Market "Organic" food made in China <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ31Ljd9T_Y&sns=em> I've some thoughts on the story I'd like to share with you, but first, what does does "Organic" mean? According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): Products labeled "organic" must consist of at least 95 percent organically produced ingredients (excluding water and salt). Any remaining product ingredients must consist of nonagricultural substances approved on the National List including specific non-organically produced agricultural products that are not commercially available in organic form. <http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3004446&acct=nopgeninfo> Whole Foods responded to the WJLA story on its website, stating that it indeed sources food from the People's Republic of China. It also states that it uses an outside vendor, QAI (Quality Assurance International) to certify and label its food products "Organic". Most interesting is Whole Foods rather nebulous refutation of WJLA's charge that "QAI has not certified any products in China." From the Whole Foods website: "QAI's seal on our package means that our independent certifier, QAI, has confirmed that we have sourced it from a certified organic operation. QAI allows us to place their seal on our label to show that they have verified that the products have been certified." http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/whole-foods-market-responds-to-wjla/ FAIL! The QAI website states: "Our (international) staff specialists have expertise in organic regulations established in the EU, Japan, Canada and Latin America." http://www.qai-inc.com Regarding China, QAI states: "While QAI does not have a presence in China, we rely on our USDA ACA counterparts to uphold the requirements of the NOP. Further, per Regulation NOP 202.501, QAI is required to accept their certification documentation. Therefore, consumers can trust that through the series of accreditations and certifications that occur from China to the United States, and from farm to fork, organic integrity has been maintained." www.qai-inc.com/pdfs/CF_06172008.pdf For those unfamiliar: * USDA ACA is a USDA Accredited Certifying Agent * NOP is the USDA National Organic Program What the above QAI statement means is, by legal agreement between the United States and the People's Republic of China, QAI must accept the word of any Chinese entity that has been granted USDA ACA status as fact. FAIL! So, what USDA ACA counterparts in the People's Republic of China does QAI rely on? On the USDA's website is the document "Complete List of Foreign Accredited Certifying Agents" created 26 January 2010. This document lists no Accredited Certifying Agents in China. Not one. http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5074487 Hmmm, that's interesting. QAI relies on Chinese USDA ACA agents that don't appear to exist. FAIL! But wait, there's more... In the same QAI document listed above, QAI states: "Regulation 7 CFR 205.670 does not require residue testing. Products may be tested by a certification agency for pesticide or GMO contamination issues in response to a complaint and/or if there is "reason" to believe that there are contamination issues." This means that QAI is not obliged to test any food products originating from anywhere in the world before labeling them "Organic". FAIL! To recap: 1. Whole Foods sources food products from the People's Republic of China 2. Whole Foods relies on QAI to determine if its food products originating from the People's Republic of China are "Organic" 3. QAI has no presence in the People's Republic of China and has not certified any products in China 4. Instead, QAI must accept food products certified by a Chinese USDA ACA agent to be "Organic" 5. At this time (1 March 2010) the USDA does not list any ACA agents in China 6. Regardless, QAI accepts food products from People's Republic of China to be "Organic" 7. QAI doesn't need to test food products originating from the People's Republic of China or anywhere else before labeling them "Organic" 8. FAIL! Scott -- RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress> ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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