12/27/06 Organic Imports

If you buy organic foods to support our small "sustainable" farmers it's time for a wake up call and a closer look at those organic labels. You see, the family with the lovely organic orchard, whose darling children work the fruit stand could be getting trumped by Latin American "organic" exports set to reach $250 million this year. While your neighbor must typically wait three years to become certified after farming with conventional chemicals, his counterpart in Peru can become certified almost immediately by virtue of being poor, Do you trust who is doing the Certification? Check the labels on your next apples pears, cherries, nectarines and plums, odds are, they are coming from the leader of South American organic exporting; Argentina . These aren't always "small" substance farmers. Dole foods, among others now imports organic pineapple from Costa Rica and bananas from Colombia , Honduras and Ecuador. Our organic movement is moving a direction never intended but as consumers we have the power to bring it back on course