Behind the fraud in the organic industry, there is a gray area in the certification process

A few organic industry product categories are facing a certain crisis of trust, and all relevant parties are expected to work together to build the organic industry into a "premium demonstration" of food safety and honest business practices.

Organic pastures illegally use feed additives, and organic vegetables are found to have pesticide residues exceeding standards... The chaos of "organic fraud" is constantly taking new forms. People both hate the fraud involving certain "organic" products and lack confidence in their quality. Who is willing to be a sucker and pay more to buy organic products with no quality guarantee?

There are perhaps three reasons for the "organic chaos." First, there is a "gray area" in the certification process. Some media reports said: "Many certification bodies have stated that there is a certain amount of room for maneuvering in organic certification. If they are dissatisfied with an auditor, they can even coordinate on the spot to replace the person." "Certification bodies give advance notice before every audit." Second, there are obvious loopholes in supervision. In interviews, industry insiders "spoiled the plot": regulatory authorities come to inspect only once every six months or a year, and they only conduct spot checks, giving companies opportunities to exploit loopholes; some institutions even provide "risk-avoidance guidance services," with dedicated personnel advising on how organic vegetables can avoid being detected after chemical pesticides are used. Third, the cost of violations is low while the profits are large. For example, organic vegetables have low yields, but their selling price is several times to more than ten times that of ordinary vegetables. With low risk and cost of violations, the production segment naturally has an incentive to raise yields by lowering production standards, and the sales segment also has an incentive to pass off inferior goods as superior to raise prices.

Looking at the dairy industry today may serve as a warning to the organic industry. After the melamine incident back then, the domestic dairy industry made obvious progress, and the quality of some brands is even better than that of imported foreign products. Although many years have passed, it still takes time for consumers to genuinely buy in. Once bitten by a snake, one fears a rope for ten years. The key to the dairy industry's revival lies in rebuilding trust. For those who have broken trust to regain it, the road is even longer and heavier. This is the price of broken trust in quality back then.

The price of broken trust is not small. If the organic industry keeps committing fraud from time to time, then producers, consumers, certification departments, regulatory departments, and all other relevant parties will undoubtedly be big losers. At present, the organic industry faces a certain crisis of trust, but it is not too late to prescribe the right remedy.

Effectively control the certification threshold. Quality supervision departments can establish a blacklist system and an exit mechanism, and impose heavy penalties on certification bodies found to have violated rules, up to canceling their qualifications, so as to prompt certification bodies, from the standpoint of safeguarding their own interests, to strengthen follow-up investigations, reviews, and assessments of the entities they certify, and to fully establish the seriousness and authority of certification.

Strengthen supervision. Testing and supervision once or twice a year with advance notice have, to a large extent, led to a lack of substantive oversight in the production segment. The key to supervision is to improve effectiveness and deterrence. The "double random" supervision method of randomly selecting both inspection targets and inspectors, surprise third-party testing, and other approaches have been proven effective in practice and should be promoted and used. When illegal and dishonest companies and individuals face greater restrictions in industry access, bidding and tendering, government procurement, and all other aspects, up to being "banned from entry," and when the cost of illegal and dishonest behavior is far higher than the gains, or even unbearably high, abiding by the law will become the rational choice.

Increase transparency in the production process. Establish a quality traceability system, and where conditions permit, advanced information technologies such as the Internet of Things can be used so that consumers can trace every stage of production in detail throughout the entire process. At the same time, through various forms, increase openness to consumers, enhance their participation, and build trust by improving transparency.

All relevant parties are expected to work together to turn the crisis into an opportunity and build the organic industry into a "premium demonstration" of food safety and honest business practices.