COA asked to reconsider proposal on organic food

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislators and the Consumers' Foundation asked Council of Agriculture (COA) officials yesterday to reconsider a proposal to relax standards for organic produce.

"Why do consumers pay higher prices for organic? To guarantee that the fruit and vegetables they're eating are free from chemicals," TSU Legislator Tseng Tsahn-deng (曾燦燈), said. "But now the COA wants to allow produce tainted with agrichemicals to be sold as organic."

There are four certifying bodies for organic produce. All have a zero-tolerance standard -- any produce testing positive for agrichemicals has its organic status revoked.

The COA is mooting a new legal standard for organic produce certification allowing produce to be certified organic despite having traces of agrichemical present, as long as concentrations are less than five percent of the legal safety limit for conventionally-grown produce.

The COA said the maximum allowable limit protects farmers who do not use pesticides and herbicides but cannot avoid small amounts of contamination from nearby farms.

"Our farmers do not have the luxury of 30m buffer zones between farms," Agriculture and Food Agency Director-General Huang Yu-tsai (黃有才) said.

Huang also cited analogous rules for organic certification in the US allowing small amounts of chemical residue. Japan and the EU, however, do not allow any detectable levels of chemical residue on organic produce.

"It's a step backwards," foundation vice chairman Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁) said. "Ninety-nine percent of organic crops tested last year were free of agrichemicals."

"Let's not punish farmers whose field are contaminated by neighbors. Let's help them to do a better job isolating their crops," he said. "But if crops test positive for agrichemicals, they shouldn't be considered organic."