My Correspondance with the USDA Regarding Auditing China's Organic Certifiers

Last week, I sent a very brief email to theUSDA asking why they chose to send auditors to China to audit the communist country's organic food product certifiers. After four or five days, I received a reply. It is from Soo Kim, who is listed as a Public Affairs Liason for the National Organic Program (NOP).  

I found out who Soo Kim is not because he (or she) accompanied the reply with his (or her) name or title. I did a quick search of the USDA website and found Mr./Ms. Kim’s name and title on a NOP contact PDF file.

And I am pleading ignorance in regard to Soo Kim’s gender. I do not know if the Asian name, Soo Kim is male or female. Forgive me Mr. (or Ms.) Kim.

So here is the reply I received in its entirety.  

“Dear Jared,

Thank you for contacting the Office of the Administrator to express your concern. Currently, farms all over the world may produce organically. However, to represent their products as USDA organic, they must be certified to the same USDA standards that U.S. farmers must meet. Therefore, the National Organic Program visited China last year to assess several of its accredited certifying agents who operate in China to ensure that products produced there for sale as “USDA organic” are meeting the same rigorous requirements that U.S. producers and handlers must meet domestically.

We hope this addresses your concern, and thank you again for your email.”

Unfortunately for Soo Kim and the USDA, this did NOT address my concern.  

I feel as if the USDA should direct their attention to domestic organic food producers. If farmers from China want to send over organic food, then we, as a nation, should do something different than spend taxpayer money to audit the Chinese organic food system.

What we could do is ensure the product is labeled with the certification that already exists in China. There are currently six organizations that certify food as organic in China. One from China (in my opinion, the least trustworthy), one from France, one from Switzerland, one from Germany, and two from Japan.

Food can carry a label that states the product is certified organic by the particular body that approved it to be organic. Furthermore, the USDA can produce a label that explicitly states the product is NOT approved by the NOP to be certified as organic.

This would encourage Americans to buy more domestic organic produce instead of foreign.  

I thought that one of the USDA’s major purposes would be to improve the ability of the American farmer to put food on our tables. But after reading the Mission Statement of the USDA, I stand corrected.

It seems as if the USDA is following this credo found under the Strategic Plan Framework section of the Mission statement; “(to expand) markets for agricultural products and support international economic development.”

I suppose the USDA's view of expanding agriculteral products is limited to the Chinese food market.

Why not? We get most of our other everyday products from China. Why not our naturally produced food as well?

In addition, the USDA clearly states they support international economic development. When did this happen? When did our government turn from looking after our own interests and become more concerned with interests of a communist country?

I did reply to Mr. (or Ms.) Kim asking what other countries has the NOP been to to audit organic certfiers. No word from Soo yet. I will keep you updated.