The End of Organic Coffee?
That’s the question that salon.com asked in a recent article about a USDA ruling that threatens to dramatically reduce the availability of certified organic coffee by squeezing hundreds of thousands of small-scale coffee farmers out of the U.S. organic market. When I read the story, I panicked for reasons both personal — I am a coffee addict fiercely committed to Fair Trade and organics — and professional — I am the liaison between the coffee drinkers CRS serves in the United States and the cooperatives of family coffee farmers that CRS accompanies in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where training in sustainable agriculture and organic farming is a key part of what we do. I immediately got to work researching the decision and talking with the coffee cooperatives we support overseas, as well as our NGO allies and Fair Trade coffee partners here in the United States. Here is what I found out:
Balancing rigor and access. The U.S. National Organic Program requires annual on-site inspections of every organic operation that sells certified organic products into the U.S. market. As consumers, this gives us confidence in the integrity of the labels on our organic food. But for small-scale farmers who work only a few acres of land and earn only a few hundred dollars a year, the cost of such a rigorous inspection routine is prohibitive. That’s why the National Organic Standards Board adopted a recommendation regarding grower groups in 2002 that strikes a balance between the need for rigorous quality assurance in organic certification and the desire to make organic certification accessible for smallholders.
The measure permits groups of smallholder farmers — cooperatives, farmers’ associations, etc. — to be certified collectively, rather than requiring the annual inspection and certification of every small farm within the group. Under “grower group certification,” only a small percentage of the farms in a grower group are inspected each year by an accredited certifying agent. The remaining farms are monitored by internal bodies that the grower groups themselves are responsible for creating, training and maintaining. Over the past five years, the “grower group certification” approach has made it possible for hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers to participate in the U.S. organic market. It saves time for inspectors — imagine inspecting every one of the more than 60,000 family farms that make up the Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union in Ethiopia! — and money for farmers while ensuring the integrity of the organic farming process for consumers.
The ruling. In late 2006, however, the USDA heard the appeal of a group of Mexican soy farmers whose organic certification was suspended for applying banned substances to their crops and storing them in ways that violate USDA organic standards. In its decision in the case, the USDA ruled that grower group certification is no longer permitted.
That’s bad news for small-scale farmers who are essentially being punished for their poverty. It is anticipated that many of the small-scale farmers who currently participate in the U.S. organic market will not be able to afford the fees associated with organic certification if this decision is enforced.It is also bad news for coffee drinkers, since almost all the certified organic coffee in the United States — an estimated $200-$300 million worth of it — is grown by small-scale family farmers. (Smallholder farmers also grow a significant percentage of the organic cocoa, tea, spices and tropical fruit available in the United States .)
Organics—the big picture. The most lamentable thing about this ruling is, of course, its potential impact on hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged producers whose families depend on access to the U.S. organic market for their livelihood. For me, a close second is the fact that this ruling will effectively confirm the suspicions of many skeptical U.S. consumers who see organic agriculture as a corporate industrial affair that has strayed from its origins as a holistic approach to the relationship between people and the earth. The small-scale, family farmers who are at risk of being squeezed out of the organic market are precisely those who still cleave most closely to the original organic ideal, and who have been able to use the organic market as a way to overcome their disadvantage in the global marketplace.
What can be done. I hope that the USDA will delay implementing this decision until it has had a chance to more carefully consider its likely impact on farmers overseas and consumers here in the United States . I am also hopeful that the USDA can work with farmers’ organizations and NGOs to strengthen the internal control systems that grower groups use rather that doing away with them altogether. Industry leaders and NGOs representing both consumers and farmers will be coming to Washington in early May to meet with USDA leadership and Capitol Hill allies on this issue. If they can craft some language that advances these goals, we will let you know how you might lobby your representatives in Washington to support it.
