Organic and Beyond
Center for Food Safety works to strengthen and watchdog the organic standard, ensuring consumers have confidence that the organic label means reduced chemical use and meaningful support of ecological farming practices.
Growing and eating organic food enhances the health and well-being of ourselves, our families, our communities, and our environment. Organic farming grows food with nature, instead of using synthetic toxic pesticides and fertilizers to overcome nature’s boundaries. Through a combination of farming practices, like the use of compost, crop rotations, cover cropping and beneficial insects, organic farms enhance the soil rather than deplete it. These sustainable agricultural practices protect biological diversity, conserve water and energy and can even help mitigate climate change.
What we put on our food, land and water ends up in our bodies. Foods bearing the Organic label are grown, processed, inspected and certified “organic” in accordance with the strict legal requirements of the Organic Foods Production Act. Organically grown food is the only food legally-mandated by our government to safeguard human health, animal welfare and the environment. The Organic label ensures that we have food grown without the use of toxic, synthetic chemicals, sewage sludge, genetically engineered ingredients, growth hormones, or irradiation.
As co-founders and members of the National Organic Coalition, Center for Food Safety works to maintain and enhance strong organic standards that live up to the quality and integrity that consumers expect from organic products through legal actions, policy comments, and public education. We strive to evolve the organic ethic by promoting agriculture that is local, small, medium and family-scale, biologically diverse, humane and socially just. The ultimate goal of our campaign is to move beyond the industrial agriculture model to a new vision and practice of organic farming that supports and sustains the natural world for future generations.
Benefits of Organic Agriculture
Since organic farms cannot use synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, eating organic food reduces you exposure to toxic residues in your food. Research has shown that children fed an all organic diet had lower body burdens of pesticides than those fed conventional foods.
While industrial agriculture still dominates farm fields and supermarket shelves, organic agriculture boasts the highest growth rate of any other sector of agriculture and domestic food production and represents a huge opportunity for farmers. According to the Organic Trade Association, organic products represent a $76 billion industry that is growing at double the rate of comparable markets
Organic farming also provides beginning farmers and ranchers an opportunity to develop a career that not only affords them a right livelihood but that also allows them to contribute to the food security and independence of their community.
Livestock grown and managed organically must have access to the outdoors and room enough to move, graze, and develop in a manner that supports their natural behavior. The organic system of animal rearing prohibits the routine and non-therapeutic use of antibiotics, which can lead to the creation of resistant E. coli strains and render the some antibiotics ineffective for human and animal use. Growth hormones such as rBST and rBGH are also prohibited, which means that the inhumane practice of forcing cows to overproduce milk cannot occur.
Organic regulations prohibit the spread of synthetic, toxic chemicals on farmland and they require farmers to build soil fertility through the use of compost and manures, crop rotations, mixed and intercropping systems, and cover crops. They also mandate on-farm biodiversity conservation practices to maintain or improve soil, water, wetlands, woodlands and wildlife. Such practices include planting native crops and pastures, establishing wildlife corridors, and creating habitat for beneficial predators (birds, bats, etc.), insects, and pollinators. Organic ruminant rearing practices must not cause soil erosion or adversely impact riparian areas or wetlands due to manure run-off. This conscious system of farming allows future generations to bank on the fact that viable farmland and farm communities will be preserved to feed our nation in perpetuity.
Organic Litigation
Victory • Cases with Impact • Healthy Communities • Organic and Beyond
Preserving Organic Compost Standards
Center for Food Safety successfully challenged USDA’s unlawful decision to allow pesticide-contaminated compost in organic production without public participation, protecting organic standards and preserving trust in the regulatory process. In a major victory, a federal court ruled that USDA violated the law and struck down the contaminated compost loophole. The decision restored protections against pesticide contamination in compost used for organic production and reaffirmed the importance of transparency and public participation in organic policymaking.
Cases with Impact • Healthy Communities • Organic and Beyond
Defending the Organic “Sunset” Process
In 2013, Center for Food Safety and a coalition of organic farmers, businesses, certifiers, and consumer organizations challenged USDA’s decision to change the long-standing "sunset" review process without public notice or rulemaking.
Victory • Cases with Impact • Healthy Communities • Animal Factories • Factory Farms • Organic and Beyond
Defending Animal Welfare in the Organic Standard
Center for Food Safety successfully challenged the Trump administration’s withdrawal of animal welfare protections under the organic standard, helping restore rules that improve the treatment of animals raised under the USDA Organic label. The final rule strengthens protections for millions of organically raised animals and represents a major victory for organic integrity, farmers, consumers, and animal welfare advocates.