A new report released by the US Inspector-General of Agriculture scrutinizes the problems in regulating the organic food industry. In response, the US government is pledging to increase funding and oversight of the organic food program.

The organic food industry is growing exponentially, by double-digit percentages every year. But with the growth of demand for organic food, the US Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program is struggling to keep up. The program is supposed to oversee the certification of organic food producers worldwide, but a report released by the US Inspector-General highlights the need for greater oversight, citing examples where food producers were falsely labeling their products “organic,” even though they were grown conventionally. In one such case, officials at the USDA failed to act, for two years, against a producer who was selling conventionally grown mint under an organic label.

The report highlighted the precarious nature of public trust in the USDA’s organic seal. The Inspector-General found that few of the certifiers (under the oversight of the USDA) responsible for testing organic operations worldwide did any regular testing for pesticides, and several organic operations were given a preliminary approval without any officials ever having been to the site to test the product. These problems seemed to be particularly applicable to foreign organic producers operating in other countries. Officials said that scheduling problems and travel advisories indicating danger in those areas prevented them from visiting the sites in question, including ones in Bolivia, Turkey, Israel, Canada, and Australia.

A big part of the problem seems to be that the USDA’s Organic Program is under-funded and under-staffed. In the last fiscal year, the National Organic Program had just 16 employees, and a mere $3.9 million in funding. This year, those numbers have almost doubled, and the Obama administration has pledged to increase the program’s funding next year to $10 million and the number of employees to 40.

After the report was released, USDA officials vowed to enforce the rules regarding testing for pesticides, beginning in September this year.

Let us hope that the USDA gets its act together in enforcing the rules and upholding the standards for foods labeled “organic.”

While diluting the organics standards originally set in place when the National Organic Program was started in 2002 has allowed more so-called organic products to stock our shelves, many worry that the drop in standards and enforcement is eroding the integrity of the organic label. After all, if the organic label loses credibility in consumers’ eyes, what is the point of buying organic?

This post was included in All Things Eco Blog Carnival Volume Ninety Five.