Why Isn’t There More Organic Farmland in the US?

In the US, only 1 percent of total farmland is under certified organic
production. In contrast, across the European Union, between 9 and 10
percent of farmland is certified Organic. In Germany and Sweden, organic
acreage is about 14 percent and rapidly increasing.

In addition, there is an EU policy passed in 2020 called Farm to
Fork that
the USDA fiercely
opposes. It
calls for 25 percent organic farmland by 2030 across all member states and a 50
percent reduction in chemical inputs across the board. Under Farm to Fork, all
member states are required to develop national policies to achieve these goals;
and a budget has been provided by the EU to facilitate the transition. Although
there has been recent
pushback
to Farm to Fork in the EU, the forces against organic production are much
greater in the US.

Stunted potential

Why has organic been so much more successful in the EU? The answer takes us back
50+ years to the time when organic standards were first being developed. Around
the world there was a push by farmers for a formal definition for what could be
labeled as “organic” in the marketplace. In 1971, Maine Organic Farmers and
Gardeners Association was the first farmer-led
certification body in the US to develop its own organic standards.
California farmers followed suit in 1973 with the formation of California
Certified Organic Farmers. Then, Oregon
Tilth developed standards in 1974. Across the world in the
years to follow, many regional organic certification bodies were formed.

Before there were National USDA Organic standards, various regional efforts
to develop standards were all farmer-led. Farmers were trying to build fair
markets for their organic products — but even more, they were trying to build a
movement to support the growth of organic practices. They came together, shared
their agrarian knowledge, and inspired and pushed each other to be “more
organic.” The concept of continuous improvement was a shared principle and
farmers led these efforts. However, in 2000, when the USDA created a National
Organic Standard, these regional certifying bodies all agreed to follow the same
national rules, with one important caveat: Farmers could not continue to
raise the bar higher than the USDA national standard.

In contrast, when the EU created its national organic standards (around the same
time as the US), the farmer-led regional certification bodies in the EU
continued to implement their own, “add-on” organic standards — which were above
and beyond what the EU Organic program required. It was this farmer involvement
that allowed the organic movement in Europe to stay strong, even improve, as the
industry grew.

One of the largest of these regional “add-on” certification agencies in Europe
is Germany’s Naturland — which requires
additional practices such as increased soil health requirements and “whole farm”
adoption of organic practices. Naturland is now the largest farmer-led, global,
organic certification agency and they are well respected as having the utmost
integrity in certification.

There are many other regional, farmer-led “add-on” labels in Europe — and they
have been instrumental to the EU’s ability to increase certified organic acreage
across the board. In contrast, in the US, we must rely on the USDA — rather than
regional, farmer-led groups — to implement the organic program. As a result, we
have lost the farmer push for “continuous improvement.”

Anti-organic forces in the US

One can’t help but wonder how organic farming in the US would be different if we
had continued to let farmers define and protect organic through regional
certification bodies (and we didn’t also have a chemical lobby that is larger
than the defense industry that vehemently undermines organic agriculture). At
present, the USDA program’s integrity continues to wane as industrial practices
are given the stamp of approval: The USDA now allows 200,000 bird poultry barns
with no access to pasture to be certified as “organic,” as well as 10,000 cow
dairies and vast hydroponic facilities. In Europe, farmers have been able to
prevent these industrial practices from taking hold under the EU Organic seal
through the pressure implemented by their regional certification bodies.

In the US, organic farmers have started to recognize the deficiencies in USDA
Organic and acknowledged the need to protect the National Organic Program, so
that their own farms can survive. The Real Organic
Project — a new, farmer-led effort taking hold
in the US to implement “add-on” standards to the USDA organic program — is the
result of this realization. To date, there are over 1,000 farms certified to
higher organic standards. They have also joined efforts with Naturland’s 140,000
certified organic farms to import products into the US that meet a higher
standard under the auspices of the Real Organic Project label.

We all want an organic label that we can trust, and we should continue to learn
from the successes of our friends around the world. The accomplishments of the
world organic movement, in spite of a massive chemical lobby, are profound. The
strong regional certifiers with integrity that remain in the US and around the
world are our hope for continued growth in organic practices. Truly, we are
stronger together.