Who cheats with organic?

Someone is cheating on organic. And it creates enormous damage and waste, as it undermines the credibility of a sector that has become vital to supporting Italian agriculture and its entire supply chain, and it undermines the good intentions of those who consumers who are also willing to accept higher costs for these products, but are certainly not willing to be deceived and squeezed like lemons (organic or not organic, it doesn't matter).

There are at least two paths that lead to the end of the scam with the organic label: the first concerns cultivated (and generously subsidized) land, thanks to the classification of "organic production"; the second refers instead to the mechanism by which the prices of organic products inflate exponentially, and unjustified, beyond legitimate profit and fair margins, in the passage from the producer to the shelves of the points of sale, and therefore to the consumers' shopping carts.

As Italians, we do nothing but boast of being a leading country in Europe in terms of the amount of agricultural land dedicated to organic farming. This amounts to approximately 2,50 million hectares, equal to 20,2 percent of the total. agricultural surfaces, while the operators registered are almost 100 thousand.

Let's say it loud and clear, to avoid any misunderstanding: organic farming, which belongs to the universe of sustainable agriculture (which also includeshydroponic agriculture) , It saved an entire sector of the Italian economy, allowing it to modernise and find new market outlets (offering high-end, quality products, in which we are unbeatable compared to the competition from other Mediterranean countries), and to provide important job opportunities to many young people, as also demonstrated by the low average age of business owners operating in organic farming (25 percent are under 40).

But let's go back to the landsi.e. to the cheats of (false) sustainability. From a recent report by Sinab (National Information System on Organic Agriculture), which among its institutional purposes, at the service of the Ministry of Agriculture, has "the promotion, dissemination and development of organic agriculture", and certainly not its demolition, It turns out that half of the lands classified as “organic” are actually not organic at all, in the sense that they do not host any crops with these characteristics, but only serve to pocket generous and regular subsidies.

The numbers certified by Sinab are beyond any verification. Of the 2,5 million hectares of land registered as "organic," approximately 500 are actually in the process of converting, and if they manage to become organic, this leap could happen no sooner than two or three years, so they're not currently certified. Then there's a generous 30 percent of land, also classified as "organic," where not a thing grows. These are uncultivated meadows and fields, where only wild herbs grow, and even "non-farmers," but simple landowners—true organic abusers—have access to funding and grants.  In total, half of the famous "organic farming" lands The claims for which Italy boasts its European record are fake, or, as the jargon would call it, fake. Meanwhile, the money pocketed for supposedly organic farming, which in reality doesn't exist, is absolutely real and documented, except in the cloying narrative of the organic-equals-sustainability myth (which is obviously false).

We're not talking about crumbs. In Italy, where imagination knows no bounds when it comes to distributing and wasting public money, There are various types of grants, incentives, and subsidies for producers, both real and fake, engaged in organic farming. These range from the various acronyms of the extremely generous European funding sources (CAP-EAFRD-PSR, i.e., Common Agricultural Policy, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and regional Rural Development Programmes) to regional calls for proposals; from the €3 billion earmarked by law for the organic sector, to another billion euros earmarked to subsidize sustainable organic agriculture within the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan). A real St. Patrick's well, in which a legion of speculators-swindlers stretches out their hands and mouths.

The second avenue, well-trodden by the (false) sustainability cheats sitting at the organic farming table, is the one that directly affects consumers and their pockets. Here too, we must make a necessary premise: without attributing miraculous properties to organic products that they don't possess, and without considering them "elixirs of long life," There is no doubt that those who choose organic fruit, vegetables and greens can benefit from it in terms of lifestyle. and at the same time contributes to providing some benefit to the environment by counteracting the abnormal and dangerous use of pesticides in traditional agriculture. But this cannot justify a bloodbath. when making a purchase in a supermarket that has its own section dedicated entirely to organic products, or in that long chain of shops and brands that offer organic products, shots of exaltation, pure marketing and nothing more, of the green, of nature, of the environment, of sustainability. 

And instead it is once again the Sinab Report that lets us discover some curious details, which stinks a mile away of legalized fraud. The example, certainly one of the most striking, is that of lemons. Thanks to numerous complaints about speculation linked to the organic trend, the price gap between organic and conventional products has finally narrowed. In order to go down, in the case of lemons, but the example can be extended to the whole fruit and vegetable catalogue, from 40 to 12 percent, this latter difference is reasonable, since organic production can have higher costs and certainly has lower yields, in terms of quantity of products per hectare.

It is a pity, however, that the reduction in the differential only concerned the compensation recognized to organic farmers, but did not reach the shelves of the big organic brands, of all the large-scale distribution chains and of the small shops specialized in organic products (we are talking, to be clear, of ad hoc brands, such as Black Elk, but also of chains like Conad, Coop, Esselunga, Carrefour, etc…). Here is the distance between organic fruit and vegetables and the conventional ones that can be bought from any greengrocer or in any fruit section of a supermarket, remains very high and unreasonable. Or rather, it can only be understood through one interpretation: speculation to the detriment of consumers who rightly believe in the quality of organic products, and are therefore willing to pay higher prices, but not to be effectively robbed.

The most singular aspect, bordering on mockery, of the picture of deceptions in the name of (false) biological sciences photographed by the detailed tables of Sinab, is that everything comes out while we are talking about the introduction of yet another organic brand, that is the wording “Italian organic”, To protect producers in the sector. Let's assume this latest label makes sense and is useful, and isn't yet another waste added to a long list of national, European, international, and regional certifications. There's only one question to ask. Who will protect all Italians, and all organic consumers, who are effectively defrauded every day by this (false) sustainable-organic agriculture?

It's easy to talk about organic food, only to discover that, alongside some undeniable benefits, this symbol of (false) sustainability is fueled by enormous interests and the spread of fake news, or even Big Lies. The Veronesi Foundation had to publish a sort of ad in its magazine and website to warn against the false narrative of organic food as a preventative antidote, valuable for people's health. The Veronesi Foundation scholars write: "No scientific study has revealed significant health differences between organic and conventional foods, especially with regard to the onset of cancer." And despite this, stories of unscrupulous marketing, depicting the alleged miracles of organic, continue to multiply. As told in this book.