It took five years of on-and-off sparring, but organic supporters are raising a nice, tall glass of organic milk after the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued revised rules governing the “access to pasture” guidelines contained within the National Organic Program.

Mark Kastel, co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute, a small farm advocacy group and one of the most vocal critics of the original regulations, was quoted in our print issue of SN as saying, “Flashing forward to a year from now, when this rule will be fully in place and enforced, we hope to be able to say that 100% of the name brands and private labels all meet the rigorous standards that consumers expect” from the USDA-certified organic label.

There are two reasons everyone is pleased. The first one, of course, is that the rule was changed. Starting in June, the USDA’s revised access to pasture regulation will require farmers to allow their cows to graze at least 120 days per year, and the cows must also get at least 30% of their food from pasture during the local grazing season. The old version simply — and vaguely — required “access to pasture,” with no further specifications as to how much or when.

Critics of the old rule claimed that large-scale dairies were taking advantage of the hazy wording to circumvent the spirit of the regulations but still calling their dairy products certified organic. Groups like the Cornucopia Institute and the Organic Consumers Association were tenacious in petitioning the USDA for investigations of specific big dairy operators and filing lawsuits. more

With so many different apps and gadgets springing up around the supermarket industry, it’s only appropriate that we get this, an interactive map detailing just about anything you’d care to know about food availability, our eating habits, and how depressingly obese we’ve become.

It’s called Your Food Environment Atlas, and it’s courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the Obama administration’s drive to get Americans — and especially kids — eating healthier. Earlier this month Michelle Obama launched Let’s Move, a nationwide effort to increase availability of healthful foods for kids, and to get them exercising more. The administration also announced it plans to spend $400 million to help eliminate food deserts.

The new food atlas is incredibly detailed, and that makes it a fun, useful tool for consumers and food industry insiders alike. Go ahead, play around with it for a while. Want to know what U.S. county eats the most pounds of fruits and vegetables? How about the regions with the highest density of fast food restaurants? I was interested to see the distribution of farms that sell directly to consumers.

Other than being a diversion when things get slow at work, the USDA’s atlas is a definitive guide in the drive to make America healthier. That might sound overblown, but information is power, and this much information can go a long way. The food industry has stated time and again its commitment to helping people lead healthy lives. Well, now they have a good idea of what they’re up against.

For all the attention that the organic industry gets, it’s easy to forget just how small it really is. We got a reminder earlier this week when the U.S. Department of Agriculture offered up the results from its first ever wide-scale survey of organic farming.

According to the results, less than 1% of all farms in the U.S. are organic. The survey tallied 14,540 organic farms covering 4.1 million acres of land, with total sales of $3.16 billion in 2008.

A few other interesting findings from the report:

- No surprise, California led the nation with 20% of all organic farms and 36% of total sales.

- Organic farms bring in an average of $217,675 in sales, compared to $134,807 for all other farms.

- Expenditures for organic farms are higher, however, at $171,978 per farm compared to $109,359 for other farms.

- 44% of organic farms sold their products within 100 miles from where they were grown.

- 83% of organic farm sales came from wholesale channels, 10% direct from retailers, and only 7% of sales came directly from consumers. more

Apps have been great for the natural foods industry. Long-time wellness consumers are used to creative thinking. I mean, back in the days before online shopping, if there was a natural/organic lifestyler who needed something special, they either did it themselves or tapped into the word-of-mouth network, shopped specialty catalogues or subscribed to newsletters.

Those inspired approaches to filling their pantries is serving them well as mobile technology continues its dizzying expansion. Indeed, a recent app in particular has the potential to satisfy all consumers with real-time data on food recalls. ReachEverywhere, developers of the Shopper iPhone Shopping Assistant application, announced that it is integrating real-time recall information from the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Now, both the FDA and USDA currently offer online access to the information (FDA even has its own app), but this new one promises to take the confusion out of trying to figure out which agency oversees the product in question.

According to my colleague, SN tech editor Michael Garry, “Users of the application who put an item on their list that is associated with a recall will automatically see the warning information for that product.”

In addition, ReachEverywhere, which launched personalized retailer circulars on the Shopper application one month ago, has added weekly circulars from Stop & Shop, Publix, Giant Food and Winn Dixie to the more than 100 existing retailers on the platform.

(Photo credit: Thibault Poix )

Organic is a regulated term and watchdog groups are actively watching to make sure producers and retailers alike don’t abuse this label. Recently, The Cornucopia Institute filed a formal complaint with the USDA’s organic program alleging that Target misled consumers into thinking some conventional food items it sells are organic.

In one example provided by the organization, Target nationally advertised Silk brand soymilk in newspapers with the term organic pictured on the carton’s label. But Silk manufacturer Dean Foods has shifted their products away from organics.

This is not the first time The Cornucopia Institute has targeted retailers. In 2006, the group filed complaints with federal and state regulators against Wal-Mart, also alleging misrepresentation of conventional food as organic with improper signage in their stores.

Surveys show the public is unclear about the difference between natural and organic, as well as related labels used in the wellness industry. That’s bad enough, but think about this: If the general public is unclear, your staff may be too. And where there’s confusion, there are often mistakes. For retailers, it’s especially important to remain vigilant.

Be sure employees understand the difference between organic products and those with natural claims, and emphasize the importance of accurate promotion — not only from the consumer perspective, but from a legal one, too.

USDA-approved organic labels first appeared on store shelves in October 2002. Use of the word organic became regulated, and producers that met certain standards were allowed to display the USDA Organic seal. more

Under the Obama administration, federal agencies have started taking progressive steps away from their former selves. We’ve written about this happening with the Food and Drug Administration, and it appears the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing the same.

So what are we talking about here — an overhaul of organic? The end of large-scale farming? Noooo. Like its big brother the FDA, the USDA has come under leadership that’s forward-thinking, yet still willing to extend an olive branch of diplomacy to the food industry. They’re working to make modest-yet-meaningful changes within the agency’s current mandate.

Two examples:

Earlier this week, the USDA announced an initiative called “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” aimed at increasing funding and awareness for local food systems. With a price tag of $65 million, the program is ambitious, and it’s addressing an issue of great interest to supermarkets, who have been stepping up their selection of local products but perhaps haven’t quite perfected the process. more

The National Organic Program has enjoyed a high level of consumer loyalty for most of its seven years. But the program’s mission to uphold standards seems to have come in conflict with the industry’s breakneck expansion. Last week, The Washington Post ran a lengthy story that summed up many of the frustrations the organic community has with the NOP. One telling detail it highlighted: The list of non-organic items allowed under the program has ballooned from 77 in 2002 to 245 currently.

Okay, so the integrity of the organic label is coming under some intense scrutiny. Luckily, though, the new administration isn’t tone deaf. Much to the delight of core users who fear organic has become tainted by synthetic ingredients and operational shortcuts, late last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the NOP will undergo an independent audit this fall. Lasting several months, the audit will look at the program’s more than 100 private certifiers and determine whether or not they’re operating up to snuff, what changes need to be made, and so on.

It’s always good to get a tune up. And after several years of double-digit sales growth and expansion into nearly every category of the supermarket, the organic program could really use it.

Here’s hoping this chance to step back and inspect the system yields some helpful solutions. The organic program could certainly use some added transparency — and the consumer confidence that comes with it.

Synthetic fatty acids in baby formula; wood starch in grated cheese; conventional hops in organic beer — These are just a few examples of how compromised the National Organic Program has become since it was implemented back in 2002.

The accusations, made in a July 3rd article in The Washington Post, aren’t new to industry insiders. But they are a reminder that organic standards are to be protected and treated with something approximating reverence. What we understand of the standards on a professional level is not shared by your average consumer.

As a result, they read the words “hexane” and “potential neurotoxin” in discussing the manufacture of synthetic fatty acids for organic baby formula and they freak out. Who wouldn’t? Forget the fact that the hexane is used in the manufacturing process and not found in the finished product.

The point is that, at one time, the synthetic fatty acids were banned from the organic program due to their…. synthetic-ness. A reversal by a single deputy USDA administrator last year and the ingredients are now allowed in organic formula. more

A federal judge in Colorado has thrown out more than a dozen class-action lawsuits filed in 2007 and 2008 against a group of defendants that included Aurora Organic Dairy, several retailers including Safeway, Wal-Mart and others who sold Aurora products, and one of the dairy’s organic certifiers.

The case alleged that Aurora and its co-defendants were committing fraud — selling milk that was not organic — after federal investigators found “willful” violations involving a number of organic regulations. The USDA ordered probation and strict remedies, but the dairy was allowed to retain its organic certification.

That probe in 2007 was the result of complaints filed by the Cornucopia Institute, the small-farm advocacy group that has been coordinating the fight against Big Dairy, which includes Aurora, the nation’s largest supplier of private-label milk products. As of today, the organization says it will work with the plaintiffs to appeal the judge’s ruling.

I am not going to debate whether Aurora set out deliberately to cut corners (remember this was around 2007, a boom year for organics, and for organic dairy in particular). The feds allowed the processor to retain its certification and to keep making milk, and that’s what the judge cited in his ruling: more

Pick anything — It’s always great when demand outpaces supply because it generates even stronger desire. Consumers want it even more (remember Elmo dolls, Cabbage Patch Kids, this year’s Springsteen tickets?). If you’re on the selling side of things, the situation is ideal, because you can charge a premium for the product.

But think again. Overwhelming demand can actually end up crimping long-term growth. People become reluctant to keep spending so much money, or they find some affordable, acceptable substitute and move on.

My favorite little office within the giant U.S. Department of Agriculture — the Economic Research Service — has just issued an insightful report about this very scenario as it applies to organics. One of the reasons I like ERS is because their writings are extremely readable. You can tell a lot of thought and effort goes into crunching the numbers and developing sound, reasonable conclusions.

So, reading through “Emerging Issues in the U.S. Organic Industry” was a revealing exercise. For example, the report notes that “significant price premiums, fast-paced growth in demand, and fluctuating market conditions” characterize the U.S. organic market since the late 1990s, a few years before the USDA implemented the National Organic Program in 2002. more