I'm finding out now that "organic" is more of a marketing ploy than a guarantee of how it was grown or produced.
Liquid Fertilizer Debacle Leads to Questions About the Integrity of Organic Food
[This piece originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of the Organic Center's monthly e-newsletter, "The Scoop."]
The Sacramento Bee broke the story about ammonium sulfate-spiked organic liquid fertilizers on December 28, 2008. The story triggered a flurry of negative commentaries about the integrity of organic food. This episode and its aftermath is sure to arise again and again as critics of the organic industry make the case that consumers cannot trust the organic label and are paying premium prices for products that are not different than conventional food.
According to the Bee story, an industry whistleblower tipped off the CDFA in June of 2004 that certain liquid fertilizer companies were using ammonium sulfate to artificially boost the nitrogen content of organic liquid fertilizers. This "industry whistleblower" could have worked for a liquid fertilizer company, an organic certifier, or conceivably, an organic farm operation.
About one year later, a CDFA inspector tested a sample of Biolizer XN, the leading product of California Liquid Fertilizer, and confirmed the presence of ammonium sulfate, an input not allowed in any organic fertilizer product.
OMRI, CCOF, CDFA, and organic farmers in California remain on high alert and investigations continue of other organic liquid fertilizer companies. One company under a cloud of suspicion for some time just announced it is ceasing operations. The added steps and independent oversight of organic liquid fertilizer products are bound to much more quickly detect any company trying to pad their profit margins by spiking organic fertilizers with cheap, petro-chemical sources of nitrogen.
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