Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Produce Safety in Organic vs.
Conventional Crops
4
Francisco Diez-Gonzalez and Avik Mukherjee
Introduction
The demand for fresh fruits and vegetables as popular food choices in our daily diet
has been increasing in recent years. As consumers are becoming increasingly aware
of the potential health benefi ts, they are consuming more fresh produce in their diets.
The market for fresh produce expanded by almost 20% over the last three decades,
but at the same time the number of foodborne outbreaks from contaminated produce
have sharply increased. In addition to the fastest growth of the fresh produce market,
the organic foods segment has also experienced sustained increases of an average of
20% annually (Dimitri and Oberholtzer 2005). Under these circumstances, the
increased popularity of organic foods in general and organic produce in particular,
adds a new dimension to the food safety concerns with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Organic growers are largely limited to the use of animal waste for fertilization of
produce and this constraint may pose a greater risk for contamination with foodborne
pathogens. Because of this potentially enhanced risk, it would be reasonable to think
that organic produce is less safe than conventional fruits and vegetables. The existing
data in the literature does not seem to support those concerns associated with organic
produce, but there are some studies that have seriously questioned the validity
of current organic manure practices. This chapter summarizes some of the most
relevant fi ndings that shed light on assessing the safety of organic as compared to
conventional produce.
Organic Foods
History
Jerome Rodale introduced the principles of “organic” agriculture to the U.S. in the
1940s, but for most of the following 40 years, organic production was adopted by
only a very small number of farmers (Conford 2001). During the early 1990s, organic
food production started gaining momentum in the United States as the interest in
foods produced more “ naturally ” increased. The Organic Foods Production Act
(OFPA) was passed in 1990 as part of the U.S. Farm Bill. This law was intended for
streamlining national standards for production, processing, handling, and marketing
of organic foods. This regulation was also meant to ensure consistent quality and
standards for organic foods produced, processed, handled, and marketed across the
nation. Under this Act, the National Organic Standard Board (NOSB) was established
in 2000. The NOSB issued the National Standards on Organic Agricultural Production
and Handling, also known as the Organic Rule. This set of regulations has been
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