Regulating [food] supply chains to ensure, for example, that organic foods deserve their labels is hard. Here are five reasons why.

1) The U.S. government doesnt enforce its standards for organic foods[T]he USDA doesnt actually administer the standards for imported foods. Instead, the certification checking that the food meets U.S. standards is done by USDA-recognized foreign regulators or USDA-authorized third-party organizations. This means the USDA outsources its authority to its equivalent agencies in other countries, as well as third-party certifiers.

2) Not all countries have U.S.-recognized regulators The number of USDA-recognizedinternational regulatorshasbeengrowing since 2009. However, it is still relatively small.

3) Thats why third-party certifiers are necessary USDAs Certifier Lookuppage lists 82 authorized third-party organizations. Although most of these USDA-accredited certifying agents are domestic, 33 areforeign agents. Also, although some of them are purely private, others arepublic.

4) But certification remains challenging in a complex global economy In practice, ensuring that imports labeled organic are actually organic is very hard, because global supply chains are complex and nontransparent. A number of suppliersor organizations may sell the product before they reach the final customer.

This creates ample opportunity for things to go wrong.

5) The problem stretches beyond the USDA This is not the USDAs fault it is one regulatory agency with limited resources, trying to deal with a multitude of suppliers. Some of these suppliers, in all likelihood, are operating unethically.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Why its so hard to know whether organic food is really organic

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5 reasons why it's so hard to know whether 'organic' food is really organic - Genetic Literacy Project