Brand Analysis: Certified Organic

Certified organic had social license with consumers long before industrial agriculture started to realize they’d lost it. The competition between label claims now is steeper than ever.

Markets for certified organic products have evolved over the years, from small-volume, short-chain, premium-priced brands… into a mainstream commodity trade. The features of certified organic products were traditionally assumed to be:

• Local,

• Safe, i.e. free from pesticide residues, and

• More nutritious.

Now, most organic grain ingredients are imported by North American processors. Spray drift from neighboring conventional farms contaminates organic crops. And in cases where organic farmers ‘mine the soil’, the ingredients don’t gain in nutrient density from healthy ecosystems.

It’s not safe for any brand to fake it these days. Protecting corporate brands requires transparent, true and verifiable outcomes to back public commitments around environmental impacts.