World Grain - March 2019 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR

Organic grain industry must
weed out bad actors
"

t was the best of times; it was the
worst of times." This opening line
from the Charles Dickens novel,
"A Tale of Two Cities," could also be
used to describe the current state of the
organic grain industry. Demand for organic grain-based products has never
been greater, particularly in the U.S. and
Western Europe, but a recent wave of
negative publicity may hamper efforts
to expand production and strengthen the
public's trust.
Fraud has been a concern of the organic industry for years, and stakeholders have gone to great lengths to assure consumers that their products are
indeed organic. But news in December
that a farmer in the United States was
charged with falsely marketing more
than $140 million worth of corn, soybeans and wheat as "certified organic"
was unsettling. It was one of the largest
schemes ever uncovered in the organic
farming industry and came on the heels
of a 2017 scandal in which millions of
pounds of organic-labeled soybeans and
corn imported by the U.S. from Turkey
were found to be fraudulent. After that
troubling discovery, one of the U.S.'s
largest organic inspection agencies, the
California Certified Organic Farmers, issued a notice to its clients indicating it
"lacked the confidence in the organic status of foreign grain." But with the recent
case in Missouri, along with another case
of fraud involving three Nebraska farmers last fall, consumer confidence both in
the United States, which is the fastestgrowing organic food market, and globally has undoubtedly been shaken.
Adding insult to injury, researchers in
Sweden released a study in December
2018 that concluded that organicallyfarmed food has more of a negative
impact on climate change than conventionally farmed food due to the greater
areas of land required. The organic industry was quick to point out the problems with this study, most notably that
the researchers hadn't accounted for
6

EDITORIAL STAFF

energy use in food production, which
is much greater with non-organic crops.
But research findings tend to get more
attention than their counterarguments,
so there is likely a percentage of the
population that now associates organic
grain production with climate change.
Even without the recent negative publicity, increasing organic grain production
is an uphill battle in many parts of the
world as farmers are skittish about taking
the risk to grow organic crops. The push
for more organic acreage was discussed
from every angle at the recent Organic
and Non-GMO Forum in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Among the key takeaways
were: 1) there are more health-conscious
consumers than ever demanding that their
food come from organic origins; and 2)
although a bushel of organic corn or soybeans is worth three times more than GM
crops, producers would like more assistance in helping them weather the initial
economic challenges in organic farming.
While the forum included many interesting ideas that would support farmers in
their transition to organic production, the
bottom line is the industry must make policing the bad actors its top priority. A step
in the right direction is the introduction
of a fraud prevention program this year
in the United States by an industry task
force. The program includes the development of a best management practices
guide, which will be the basis of an Organic Industry Fraud Prevention Program.
There is also a plan to develop a preferred
buyer list of companies
that are adopting the
BMP guide.
The vast majority of
organic grain producers are playing by the
rules, but it only takes
a few bad kernels to
ruin a bushel of grain and put doubt in
the mind of the consumer.
Arvin Donley
Editor

Editor-in-Chief
Morton I. Sosland
Editor
Arvin Donley
Managing Editor
Eric Schroeder
Associate Editor
Susan Reidy
Digital Media Associate Editor Holly Demaree
European Correspondent
Chris Lyddon
China Consultant
Fengcheng Wang
PUBLISHING STAFF
Publisher
Dan Flavin
International Sales Manager Adam Ungashick
Audience
Development Director
Michael Barbee
Audience Development Manager Kay Hudspeth
Audience Development Analyst Dustin PIckman
Audience Development Specialist Amy Moser
Director of Digital Media
Jon Hall
Digital Advertising Manager
Carrie Fluegge
Advertising Manager
Nora Wages
Advertising Assistant Manager
Erica Reyes
Advertising Coordinator
Kayley Kerns
Design Services Manager Sadowna Conarroe
Design Services
Assistant Manager
Ryan Alcantara
Graphic Designer
Brian Peterman
Production Specialist
Marj Potts
Promotions Manager
Jim White
CORPORATE
Chairman and CEO
President
Chief Financial and
Administrative Officer
Chief Operating Officer
and Executive Editor

Charles Sosland
L. Joshua Sosland
Staci Greco
Meyer Sosland

WORLD GRAIN (ISSN 0745-8991) Volume 37, issue 3,

is published monthly by Sosland Publishing Company,
4801 Main Street, Suite 650, Kansas City, MO 64112 U.S.
Periodicals postage paid at Kansas City, MO 64108 U.S. and
additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WORLD GRAIN,
PO Box 3001, Northbrook IL 60065-9743. ©2019 Sosland
Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the
whole or any part of the contents without written permission
is prohibited. WORLD GRAIN assumes no responsibility for
the validity of claims in items reported. Sosland Publishing
Company is a division of Sosland Companies. Inc.
Editorial and advertising inquiries should be directed to our
world headquarters at 4801 Main St., Suite 650,
Kansas City, Missouri 64112 U.S. Tel: 1-816-756-1000,
Fax: 1-816-756-0494 or E-mail worldgrain@sosland.com.
Requests for reprints of articles should be sent to
reprints@sosland.com or call 1-816-756-1000.

March 2019 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

http://www.World-Grain.com

World Grain - March 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of World Grain - March 2019