Re The labels said 'organic.' But these massive imports of corn and soybeans weren't.

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rahul Tongia <tongia () cmu edu>
Date: Sun, May 14, 2017 at 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: [IP] Re The labels said 'organic.' But these massive imports
of corn and soybeans weren't.
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: ip <ip () listbox com>


[for IP],

Richard makes a lot of interesting points, but let me begin with a quote
from a wise, older gentleman: "When I was young, all food was organic".

Organic isn't the new fad - it was all we knew and had for the longest of
time.  Synthetic inputs were a necessity driven by the need for more food
and/or economics.

Re. "better" - one thing I will second - "organic" is often a label - and
some organics mean "below a threshold".  What we really need are pesticide
free.

I will also quote statisticians - absence of proof doesn't mean proof of
absence.  It's not clear why anyone would expect organic to have more
nutrition, but it can still be healthier, esp. for the overall
environment.

Also, agricultural experts are divided on whether chemical inputs
(nutrients) can be allowed (or not) compared to pesticides.  Nitrogen
fertilizers are a key part of higher yields, and I would choose them over
pesticides if I had a choice.

Regarding precision farming, yes, one can combine that with organic
farming.  Just like one can make compostable "plastic".  This stuff doesn't
have to be black or white!

Rahul



On Sun, May 14, 2017 at 2:19 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> *From:* Richard Bennett <richard () bennett com>
> *Date:* May 13, 2017 at 4:42:53 PM EDT
> *To:* Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> *Cc:* ip <ip () listbox com>
> *Subject:* *Re: [IP] The labels said 'organic.' But these massive imports
> of corn and soybeans weren't.*
>
> This is a good practice that should be encouraged. Organic food is
> basically a scam because it’s not more nutritious that conventional GMO
> food, and it’s much worse for the environment that food grown with modern
> methods. Stanford did a monster analysis on the nutrition issues, and there
> have be numerous studies on the environmental impact.
>
> It comes down the fact that organic is less productive than conventional
> farming, so it takes more acres of land for organic to produce the same
> output. This means more water, more CO2 from tractors, and more runoff.
> Organic food has to be fertilized with manure, which doesn’t have precise
> doses of nutrients. So farmers have to over-apply, which leads to runoff.
> Modern farming methods called “precision agriculture” apply water,
> pesticides, and nutrients on-demand and in the doses needed. This stuff is
> all enabled by IT, GPS, and networking in general.
>
> Organic is also horrible at carbon sequestration because its only
> effective weed control methods are manual pulling and plowing, while GMO
> farmers can use zero-till methods with herbicide-tolerant plants.
>
> Many people mistakenly believe that organic food is pesticide-free, while
> it isn’t. Organic farmers are permitted to use a broad panoply of
> pesticides from the OMRI registry and even to use synthetic pesticides in
> low doses when all else fails. As one would expect, naturally-derived
> pesticides are less effective than synthetics, hence higher doses and
> greater environmental impact.
>
> So the best solution for people who want to eat organic is to apply the
> organic label to conventional foods. This allows consumers to overpay and
> enjoy the placebo effect without harming the planet.
>
> Bravo.
>
> RB
>
>
> On May 13, 2017, at 10:34 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> *From:* Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> *Date:* May 13, 2017 at 12:15:01 PM EDT
> *To:* Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> *Subject:* *[Dewayne-Net] The labels said 'organic.' But these massive
> imports of corn and soybeans weren't.*
> *Reply-To:* dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> The labels said ‘organic.’ But these massive imports of corn and soybeans
> weren’t.
> By Peter Whoriskey
> May 12 2017
> <
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-labels-said-organic-but-these-massive-imports-of-corn-and-soybeans-werent/2017/05/12/6d165984-2b76-11e7-a616-d7c8a68c1a66_story.html
> >
>
> A shipment of 36 million pounds of soybeans sailed late last year from
> Ukraine to Turkey to California. Along the way, it underwent a remarkable
> transformation.
>
> The cargo began as ordinary soybeans, according to documents obtained by
> The Washington Post. Like ordinary soybeans, they were fumigated with a
> pesticide. They were priced like ordinary soybeans, too.
>
> But by the time the 600-foot cargo ship carrying them to Stockton, Calif.,
> arrived in December, the soybeans had been labeled “organic,” according to
> receipts, invoices and other shipping records. That switch — the addition
> of the “USDA Organic” designation — boosted their value by approximately $4
> million, creating a windfall for at least one company in the supply chain.
>
>
>
> After being contacted by The Post, the broker for the soybeans,
> Annapolis-based Global Natural, emailed a statement saying it may have been
> “provided with false certification documents” regarding some grain
> shipments from Eastern Europe. About 21 million pounds of the soybeans have
> already been distributed to customers.
>
> The multimillion-dollar metamorphosis of the soybeans, as well as two
> other similar grain shipments in the past year examined by The Post,
> demonstrate weaknesses in the way that the United States ensures that what
> is sold as “USDA Organic” is really organic.
>
> The three shipments, each involving millions of pounds of “organic” corn
> or soybeans, were large enough to constitute a meaningful proportion of the
> U.S. supply of those commodities. All three were presented as organic,
> despite evidence to the contrary. And all three hailed from Turkey, now one
> of the largest exporters of organic products to the United States,
> according to Foreign Agricultural Service statistics.
>
> Agriculture Department officials said that they are investigating
> fraudulent organic grain shipments. But the agency declined to identify any
> of the firms or shipments involved.
>
> “We are continuing the investigation based on the evidence received,” it
> said in a statement.
>
> The imported corn and soybean shipments examined by The Post were largely
> destined to become animal feed and enter the supply chain for some of the
> largest organic food industries. Organic eggs, organic milk, organic
> chicken and organic beef are supposed to come from animals that consume
> organic feed, an added expense for farmers that contributes to the higher
> consumer prices on those items.
>
> While most food sold as “USDA Organic” is grown in the United States, at
> least half of some organic commodities — corn, soybeans and coffee — come
> from overseas, from as many as 100 countries.
>
>
>
> USDA officials say that their system for guarding against fraud is robust.
>
> Under USDA rules, a company importing an organic product must verify that
> it has come from a supplier that has a “USDA Organic” certificate. It must
> keep receipts and invoices. But it need not trace the product back to the
> farm. Some importers, aware of the possibility of fraud, request extra
> documentation. But others do not.
>
> Regardless of where organics come from, critics say, the system suffers
> from multiple weaknesses in enforcement: Farmers hire their own inspection
> companies; most inspections are announced days or weeks in advance and lack
> the element of surprise; and testing for pesticides is the exception rather
> than the rule.
>
> These vulnerabilities are magnified with imported products, which often
> involve more middlemen, each of whom could profit by relabeling
> conventional goods as “organic.” The temptation could be substantial, too:
> Products with a “USDA Organic” label routinely sell for twice the price of
> their conventional counterparts.
>
> In recent years, even as the amount of organic corn and soybeans imported
> to the United States has more than tripled, the USDA has not issued any
> major sanctions for the import of fraudulent grain, U.S. farmers said.
>
> “The U.S. market is the easiest for potentially fraudulent organic
> products to penetrate because the chances of getting caught here are not
> very high,” said John Bobbe, executive director of the Organic Farmers’
> Agency for Relationship Marketing, or OFARM, a farmer cooperative. In
> Europe and Canada, he said, import rules for organics are much stricter.
>
> Moreover, even when the USDA has responded to complaints of questionable
> imports, action has come too late to prevent the products from reaching
> consumers.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>
>
>
>
> —
>
>
> Richard Bennett
> Founder/Publisher, High Tech Forum <http://hightechforum.org>
>
>
> Consultant
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