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The idea of purchasing “organic” foods depends a great deal on trust.  I trust the farmer has taken numerous steps to grow food without artificial or chemical products, uses natural pest control versus pesticides, etc.  He in turn trusts that the products that he is buying to fertilize his fields are based on organic standards.  Without that trust, an “organic apple” is just an apple, a head of “organic lettuce”, is just lettuce, and so on.

Some argue that the government should set standards so that those farmers practicing organic methods of farming and husbandry can be monitored and those standards enforced.  Others (myself included) would like the government to stay out of it (mostly).

A recent article brings to light a breach of that trust.  It reveals that several seasons worth of organic food were grown using a fertilizer that included ammonium sulfate – which is made from fossil fuels.

Sacramento Bee:

For up to seven years, California Liquid Fertilizer sold what seemed to be an organic farmer’s dream, brewed from fish and chicken feathers.

The company’s fertilizer was effective, inexpensive and approved by organic regulators. By 2006, it held as much as a third of the market in California.

But a state investigation caught the Salinas-area company spiking its product with ammonium sulfate, a synthetic fertilizer banned from organic farms.

As a result, some of California’s 2006 harvest of organic fruits, nuts and vegetables – including crops from giants like Earthbound Farm – wasn’t really organic.

It goes on…

State officials knew some of California’s largest organic farms had been using the fertilizer, the documents show, but they kept their findings confidential until nearly a year and a half after it was removed from the market. No farms lost their organic certification.

To me the best way of insuring that you have fresh healthy food that is grown with care for the environment and for the consumer is to know your farmer.  Nevertheless, one should realize that even Farmer John can get duped.  Another reason to start up a compost pile, and start growing your fruits and veggies in the back yard.