AGRICULTURE : Organic Food-Labeling Rules Given Teeth by New U.S. Law

Food that is proclaimed to be “organically grown” will for the first time have to meet national standards under a little-noticed provision of the 1990 farm bill.

The provision will reassure both grocers and consumers that what they buy is authentic, said Bob Scowcroft of the California Certified Organic Farmers Assn.

“There is more organic rice sold than grown,” quipped Russell Parker, purchasing director for Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Food Markets, a chain of seven groceries in the Los Angeles area that sells mostly organic items. “We need a reliable standard for the industry.”

Such a standard will go into effect in the fall of 1993.

Without those federal standards, “there was no way of telling for sure what the integrity of a product was, what with the words ‘lite’ and ‘natural’ having become essentially advertising slogans,” said Jim Holt, manager of the Organic Foods Alliance, an industry lobbying organization.

BACKGROUND: The organic food industry is growing by 40%--or $1.25 billion--annually, according to Wendy Cohen, analyst at the Center for Resource Economics, an environmental organization based here.

Estimates of the number of organic farmers in the United States vary from 8,000 to 16,000 of the nation’s 2.2 million farmers. In California--the nation’s largest single supplier of organic foods--the total hovers around 1,100.

Twenty-two states, including California, have established their own standards for organic foods, according to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. But standards vary so much among states that farmers are often limited to selling produce only within their own state.

California, in 1979, was the first state to enact an organic law. A more stringent version approved last month requires a three-year transitional period from conventional to organic farming so chemicals in the soil and plants have time to disperse, and it requires organic growers to register with the state. It carries a maximum $5,000 fine for violations, such as selling non-organic food under an organic label. The new federal law does not preclude the enforcement of state laws.

The federal law stipulates that the “organic” label will no longer be allowed on processed foods, such as cereal or spaghetti sauce, unless 95% of the contents (not including water and salt) are organic. Foods that have an organic content of between 50% and 95% may be labeled as “containing” organic ingredients.

Raw products sold with the organic label will have to be grown without certain pesticides and using certain practices, both of which will be determined by a national organic standards board, yet to be established.

Even livestock is subject to labeling standards. For instance, chemicals such as growth hormones and feed containing antibiotics are prohibited.

The new standards will require any farmer seeking to sell organic food to register with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and to become certified by a USDA-accredited agency, whether public or private.

Producers who intentionally violate the rules will be subject to civil penalties of up to $10,000 and temporary loss of accreditation.

IMPACT: The federal law will “dovetail nicely,” according to Darryl Young, a legislative assistant for Assemblyman Sam Farr, who introduced the California measure.

The law will also help end the free-for-all in organic labeling that has hurt trade between states. Moreover, it should help promote international trade, because the foreign market has historically been insistent on certification before buying organic foods.

For example, Mitsubishi recently purchased a chain of organic food stores in Japan that are being stocked with dried fruits and nuts from the California Certified Organic Farmers Assn., whose certification process has undergone several inspections by company representatives, Scowcroft said.