It’s very stressful trying to find ways to eliminate carcinogens from my family’s lives after hundreds of hours of reading studies & health reports.

Now I find it might not be doing any good in the food department because of worthless organic rules & certifications that still allow chemicals in our groceries.

Shame on those who have watered down the meaning of organic for the sake of cutting corners to make more money, and who may have taken kickbacks from Big Ag to cut down the regulations.

I live near the Salinas Valley. There are “Organic” farms in that valley (Taylor). How can that be when so much of the agriculture there is anything but organic?

Hi Corina,

We hope to have a label coming out this year. We already have 60 farms certified with Real Organic Project, but still no label! We are moving at warp speed. Add your name to our mailing list on the realorganicproject.org website, and we will keep you posted. In the meantime, keep asking the store people if they have soil-grown organic fruits and vegetables. And ask if the organic meat, milk, and eggs come from CAFOs or are really raised on pasture. They proabably won’t know the answer to these questions, but if enough people keep asking, they will find out.

It is not clear to me from Dr. Tucker’s statements in this article whether the NOP is allowing or prohibiting an immediate transition from conventional to “organic hydroponic”. If they are allowing it, then, by logic, they are allowing the use of prohibited substances immediately before certification. I have heard that she will clarify the NOP position at the upcoming NOSB meeting in Seattle.

Even if CCOF does not allow these practices, other certifiers do. It is the Wild West out there, with many certifiers creating their own interpretations in the face of the NOP’s failures.

Also, the NOP HAS conducted a survey of the number of hydroponic operations. Miles McEvoy spoke about this at a 2016 NOSB meeting. He said, “Certified organic hydroponic, aquaponic, and container-based systems constitute an extreme minority of all certified organic operations, or less than 0.4% when combined.”

Finally, Dr. Tucker is quite mistaken that the last three administrations have embraced the concept of hydroponics as organic. The National Organic Standards Board gave a formal recommendation in 2010 that hydroponics have no place in organic certification. A recommendation from the NOSB is a big deal. It must pass by at least 2/3. This recommendation was ignored by Secretary Vilsack, but it was the formal position put forward by the board. It was ultimately opposed by the NOP, which is a VERY rare event. No recommendation since then has been passed that supersedes this. To say that this issue is settled is only wishful thinking for the NOP. In fact, a lawsuit for NOP violations of the Organic Food Production Act is in process, as she well knows.

And to those “tired” of their hydroponic practices being portrayed in a negative light, I say that they should start their own label so that they can proudly advertise the way that they grow instead of stealing a label based on soil health. Some hydroponic growers are proud of their production system, but many who are obtaining organic certification seem embarrassed or ashamed, based on the degree to which they hide their hydroponic practices from their customers. Of course, I am not speaking of Marianne Cufone, who is quite proud of the way her clients grow. But the larger producers do not share her transparency.