New Update on Organic China; second reply from Soo.

To review, I recently read the "2010 Organic Assessment of China" written and disseminated by the National Organic Program (NOP), a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

After reading said assessment, I recognized the NOP's effort at auditing China's organic producers as a waste of taxpayer money. I wrote to the NOP asking why they chose to spend their money on foreign agricultural issues instead of focusing on domestic agriculture.

Soo Kim, the savvy Public Affairs Liaison for the NOP, replied with a one paragraph email informing me that the NOP flew to China and spent days reviewing how the Chinese (communist) agricultural community produces organic food. The NOP did so because they, as a representative of our Federal government, want to be sure that imported Chinese (remember, they are communists) organic products meet the same "rigorous requirements that U.S. producers and handlers must meet domestically."

Hmmm.  

Soo told me that they spent a lot of taxpayer money so that Chinese (communist) organic food can be as good as American organic food.

So, I asked Soo where else has the NOP travelled to ensure that more foreign organic food is as good as American organic food?

Here is Soo's laconic reply.

"In addition to the compliance audit in China, which included a number of on-site audits of Chinese production and handling operations that are certified to operate under the NOP regulations, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) auditors have also conducted assessments in Europe, Canada, South America, and Africa."

Does this make anyone else as angry as this makes me?! The NOP has spend who knows how many thousands of dollars so that farmers in Europe, Canada, South America, Africa, and China can import food labeled "USDA Organic" into the United States. This type of practice undercuts every single American farmer who is trying to produce a quality, organic product!

In addition, the entire idea of importing products is counterintuitive to the organic food movement. For the NOP to think that the notion of purchasing a product because it is organic regardless of it’s origin is absurd. The whole idea of purchasing organic lies not only in the natural production of the product, but it also encompasses the cost (not just monetarily, but environmentally) as well.

I suggest the purchase of local organic products.  

And, I encourage the NOP to please stop wasting money supporting foreign farmers. Please, support American farmers instead.