Organic: A Journalist's Quest to Discover the Truth behind Food Labeling

by Peter Laufer

Part food narrative, part investigation, part adventure story, Organic is an eye-opening and entertaining look into the anything goes world behind the organic label. It is also a wakeup call about the dubious origins of food labeled organic. After eating some suspect organic walnuts that supposedly were produced in Kazakhstan, veteran journalist Peter Laufer chooses a few items from his home pantry and traces their origins back to their source. Along the way he learns how easily we are tricked into taking “organic” claims at face value.

With organic foods readily available at supermarket chains, confusion and outright deception about labels have become commonplace. Globalization has allowed food from highly corrupt governments and businesses overseas to pollute the organic market with food that is anything but. The organic environment is like the Wild West: oversight is virtually nonexistent, and deception runs amok. Laufer investigates so-called organic farms in Europe and South America as well as in his own backyard in the Pacific Northwest.

The book examines what constitutes organic and by whom the definitions are made. The answers will stun readers, who have been sold a questionable, highly suspect, and even false bill of goods for years.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Health, Science, Journalism

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2014

About the author

Peter Laufer, Ph.D., is the author of more than a dozen books that deal with social and political issues, including "Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq," "Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border," and "Iron Curtain Rising: A Personal Journey through the Changing Landscape of Eastern Eurpoe." He is the coanchor of "The Peter Laufer Show" on radio station Green 960 in San Francisco. More about his books, documentary films, broadcasts, which have won the George Polk, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward R. Murrow, and other awards, can be found at peterlaufer.com. He lives in Bodega Bay, California.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Laufer's "Organic: A Journalist's Quest to Discover the Truth Behind Food Labeling" is a journalistic companion to books by the likes of Alice Waters and Michael Pollan, and should be required reading for anyone committed to the organic food movement and lifestyle. As Laufer's title implies, there is much confusion in the labels slapped on the food we consume, and many food producers and distributers go to great lengths to nurture the obfuscation of these labels. Laufer scrutinizes many well-known and so-called organic brands and grocery chains, often with disheartening results (Everyone's beloved Trader Joe's comes away with an especially egg-smeared face).

I could have done without some of the extreme muckraking that Laufer's prose is occasionally prone to. Lines such as: "Is you is or is you ain't my baby," sang Louis Jordan. 'Is you is or is you ain't organic,' I cry into my beer," seem over-the-top and undermine what is otherwise a sobering and trenchant report. He also has a tendency to repeat himself, and there were anecdotes, stories, and certain phrases that I found myself eye-rolling over by the end of the book. You may not believe me right now when I tell you that you will grow tired of the phrase "Bolivian organic black beans" or of hearing about an imaginary walnut farmer in Khazakhstan named Nigel. But trust me, you will.

I also wish Laufer had taken some time at the end of the book to present concrete steps a consumer might take to combat what seems to be rampant dishonesty in the organic food industry. Instead, it ends on a gloom-and-doom note with no proposed solutions. As a regular consumer just living in the world, the book left me feeling helpless.

Still, the information laid out in "Organic" is eye-opening. Perhaps if it gains a wide enough readership, consumers will begin to demand the transparency of food labeling that should be required.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to be honest, a little over half way through this book I started to just skim the pages to just get to the conclusion of the book. I found the author's writing to be lengthy and a bit bias towards his own personal opinion about the organic industry. That being said, he does describe his in depth conversations with those he meets along the way to find the origins of two organic food purchases, and from those conversations I was able to walk away with some more information about the organic industry and draw my own conclusions as a consumer.

[Jim Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would have deserved five stars for its content, but I find the author's writing style to be incredibly boring and difficult to follow. I don't even know why, but I had to struggle through this even though I was very interested in the content.

Essentially, this is an expose on the industry of marketing and certifying organic produce. He does this primarily through an attempt to follow a bag of organic walnuts and a can of organic black beans back to their source, finding an impenetrable barrier of red tape, corporate doublespeak, and conflicts of interest on the way.

This book does serve as a depressing reminder that "organic" doesn't really mean what we think it means and that the original intentions of the label have been usurped by big money corporate retailing interests who exploit our naivety in increase their profit margin. Buyer beware when it comes to paying extra for organic from super markets.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book. It is informative, interesting reading. It is extremely detailed, sometimes difficult to follow, but the author has a writing style that holds your attention. We all know people who throw large amounts of money away on "organic" foods, believing that they will be healthier than anyone who doesn't. And we all know there is a great deal of fraud, cover-up, and downright lying going on. We have seen people buying putrid, horrid-tasting, even spoiled food labeled "organic." This book would open their eyes to the truth about what organic is and is not! There is also good information about pricey, so-called upscale organic stores, who owns them, what their run-around, secrecy policies are, and how they avoid answering questions about the true origins of the food they sell.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

All homemakers should read this book, especially if they are trying to buy healthful food for the sake of their husband and children as well as themselves. Although it is a nonfiction account of the author's investigation into the credibility of organic food labeling, Peter Laufer's quest often seems like the story line of a mystery novel. I found this book to be well researched, interesting, informative, and often quite exciting!

A special thank you to the author's wife, Sheila, who did a stellar editing job:)

Disclosure: This review is of an Advance Reading Copy provided by goodreads.

[Chrislin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. LAUFER OPENED MY EYES.
I read this book like I was getting ready for a test. I even did something I have NEVER done I wrote in the book. underlined passages. important stuff. I then checked food in my pantry. I found food by companies I thought I knew. They do not tell you where the food comes from. It concerns me. Dole mandarin oranges marked China. Meijer a huge super store in the mid-west the brand they support puts food in cans and just labels them by who they are distributed by. where does the food come from? Mr. Laufer traveled from his home and around the world checking organic. I was impressed. Read this book.

[Kristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth reading inside look on how dysfunctional the USDA organic certification process is. The main issue is the conflicts of interest that arise when farmers and food processors inspect and certify as organic pay the inspection and certification operators for their services.

The author provides several cases of false organic goods (which can occur from forged certificates, conventional products tainting organic products,
and inconsistent global food regulations in the organic food industry).

Long story short - skip the Trader Joe's organic walnuts from Kazakhstan and buy your food from trusted local farmers as much as possible.

[Geraldine (geraldinereads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book at BEA and boy am I glad I did! First of all, the author's writing style had me glued the entire time! As far as content goes, this was super informative and raises many questions that Americans don't usually think twice about; what makes something organic? Personally, I don't buy organic (unless I'm at a farmer's market, local farm, etc.) because I already had my doubts before reading this book. Great read for those that are on the fence about organic products or non-fiction in general!

[Rashida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome read!!! It was an exciting quest, the unacceptable, hard to swallow realities of the international food production and distribution system probed by the intrepid Laufer with a peppering of humor and the salt of consistency throughout. In the middle, almost when you think you are growing a little jaded, Laufer's quest comes to a climactic finale that reveals both the virtues and the evils that coexist in the sprawling industry. We really should be asking more questions about our food. Thanks to Laufer, I now know better exactly what questions to ask.

[Starr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bottom line: The "organic" label is often too good to be true.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published prior to the Washington Post exposé of massive fraud with imported feed grains and a comparable domestic fraud in the midwest, Lauffer's book takes us on a journey of the investigation of the sources of food sold as organic. His quest begins with the purchase of walnuts claimed to originate from Kazakhstan at the Trader Joe's in Eugene. By the description of his neighborhood, I guess we live about a mile apart, so his surroundings were immediately familiar to me. Rather than transparency, he encounters a series of stone walls with TJ's, the certifier, and ultimately the USDA's National Organic Program. In the meantime, he also purchases a can of organic black beans from Market of Choice. His tracebacks of the walnuts and black beans should be read by every organic inspector who is serious about doing international tracebacks.

Lauffer makes a number of small errors that distract an insider like me. I've marked a few pages, but there's no point in getting into the minutiae that kept me from giving the book five stars. Several of his interviewees were people I've known for years. His characterizations of them all rang true. His treatment of the Harold Chase case—the Springfield, OR grower convicted of organic fraud in the Federal courthouse in Eugene—presaged the much larger fraud conducted both in the Black Sea region by organized crime elements in the former Soviet Union, as well as those carried out in the Midwest that have resulted in convictions and on-going investigations.

Lauffer makes clear that he is a long-time supporter and consumer of organic products. His exposé is not a "gotcha" but rather an ernest attempt to see organic consumers get what they pay for. Hopefully those reading it will be inspired to protect organic integrity and make the world a better place.

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to close this book multiple times while reading it. The author begins his investigation with the assumption that the organic food industry is corrupt to the core and clings to his bias throughout the book. He repeatedly insults his sources, and ignores or simply refuses to accept legitimate answers to his questions. Per his quite clear opinion, if the certification process isn't perfect and the rules aren't absolute, then they are not good enough, or worse, dishonest and corrupt. Add the sprinkling of the guy's name dropping and shameless self promotion, and he just galled me terribly.

Despite the negativity, I did take away some learning from the book. Some of the interviews were heavily quoted, which allowed me to draw my own conclusions from the interviewees' answers, ignoring the assertions and stabs taken by the author. I am more aware of some of the shortcomings of the system. Also, since the author asked most of his contacts about their personal philosophies when it comes to eating organic, I am are to base my own purchasing decisions off of theirs, which seem to often be some combination of (1) trust the system, even if it's not perfect; (2) it's not all-or-none, buy what you can when you can; (3) buying local is not just about supporting local businesses, it relates to the perishability of the organic food and environmental concerns, and it should be considered as important as the organic question.

Given how hard it was for me to get through this book, I am not so sure that I would recommend it to others. The lessons were good, but I had to read between the biased lines to reach them, and I'm fairly certain you could learn them through other, less infuriating sources.

[Michelle Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as research for my work. The information in the book was well researched and shared many of the issues that experts have about food production in general. I also found this book to be a good balance of the good and bad of organic production. However, I found the organization of this book hard to follow and in places was not able to track how the author got where they were, nor could I understand how this interview related to the focus of the book. Overall, this book is a good resource but is not a fun, page turning read.

[Shelley Cooper-White · Rating 1 out of 5]

Organic is the anti-vax movement of the food industry; lots of emotional opinions with no basis in fact. Despite being a journalist and pretending to be impartial, this guy seems to love eating organic just because his wife has decided she doesn't believe in "nasties"? Guy of privilege writes book to encourage people of privilege to waste money on organic food.
I’m all for judicious food choices to reduce your environmental impact, but this guy is off his chops. Wouldn't recommend.

[Jaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fairly straight-forward look at both how important organic food is to the environment and our health as well as how the whole labeling system can be misunderstood and outright corrupted. I thought it was a balanced approach and really puts the responsibility back on the buyer to be aware and educated about their choices.

[Marija · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not care for the writing style used in this book. The author uses more words than are necessary to explain his points. He is all over the place, literally, which creates a lack of cohesiveness throughout the book. I did take away a couple of points that I can apply to my everyday journey through the organic food world.

[Michael Plotkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty solid read- learned about Oregon Tilth (legit) and the trade associations that get paid by the farmers and supplier companies they are obligated to inspect for organic practices. Its not a transparent system! impressed with the journalist's determination to travel to Bolivia and other places in search of answers!

[Ani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sought out this book after learning to be skeptical of the “dirty dozen” list. Reading the reviews, I was worried it would be a bore, but found it to be quite enjoyable bedtime reading. I like the author’s style and found it quite thorough but not over the top.

[Dr NSCA-CPT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book on an interesting topic. The author does a good job describing his adventure and the people he meets along the way.

[Jennifer Rauch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A crucial book! If you buy organic food, read this to know what you're getting. Laufer brings the reader on an entertaining and informative quest. He's a Polk-Award-winning investigative reporter--the real deal. I'm scrutinizing my pantry right now, with Sharpie marker in hand...

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Laufer decides to write about the organic food industry after purchasing a bag of nuts from Trader Joe's that claims to be organic and to have been sourced from Kazakhstan, and a can of beans purportedly from Bolivia. He is skeptical about these claims and about the honesty of organic labels in general. His skepticism echoes the concerns of many of us, and I was eager to read about his investigative process and to discover the truth. Laufer travels to farms and interviews trade representatives and government officials worldwide, and discovers that though there is oversight, there are relatively few inspectors and they simply can't be everywhere. He does provide a lot of information about the industry in general. For instance, "by law 5 percent of a USDA certified organic product can be nonorganic, but any nonorganic components must be on the approved list." Accountability is rare, particularly for imported food.

Laufer also reveals some of the enigmas of the industry: organic farmers have to pay for certification, but non-organic farmers are not subjected to any certification that they are using acceptable levels of toxic chemicals. As one of the chapters is labelled "Why Not Label the Poisoned Food?"

Unfortunately, he seems to start with some preconceived notions that there are a lot of cheaters and crooks in the industry, and is reluctant to let go of those notions. Although he does encounter some people who agree that there could be some fraud, he doesn't really encounter any such fraud himself. Laufer summarizes by stating that there is a lack of business transparency in the industry, as well as conflicts of interest. He finds that organic certificates are easy to forge, and that it's all but impossible to ascertain quality and purity of a product. He states that the global organic food industry suffers from inconsistencies and from lapses in enforcement.

[Jim Kisela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a little suspicious of how quickly the main stream industrial food industry was moving into the marketing of "organic" food. Peter Laufer was too, and as a journalist, he set out to track down a couple of organic products he had purchased and go back to their source.

This book is the story of his journey to find the sources of organic walnuts from Kazakstan sold by Trader Joe's, and organic black beans from Bolivia sold by a local retailer, Market of Choice.

In the process of researching these two products he delves deeply into the concept of "organic" food and what it means around the world. There is a proliferation of organizations that certify products as being organic, but the standards and effectiveness of this type of certification are dubious. Corruption and the potential conflicts of interest in the process where there is such a complicated system of production, distribution, and manufacturing is rife, particularly in the less developed parts of the world.

The results of his search may, or may not, surprise you -- but this is an interesting status report on a rapidly growing segment of the food industry.

I, myself, will be skeptical about the provenance of so-called organic food unless I really trust the supplier. Preferably, I will be able to look into the eyes of a farmer at a local farmer's market and gauge her honesty and commitment to true organic food production.

Oh, and this is just me talking about trust -- I will not shop at Trader Joe's again.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good look into the origin of our organic food and if our organic food is really what it claims to be, considering what we are paying for it. What started out as a nice movement, seems to be taken over by clever marketing lulling consumers into a security given by the organic seal.

It is nice to read something that is balanced as a lot of viewpoints tend to be militant - either organic everything is the cure all to this world or organics is bullshit.

It is not that I do not like investigative scientific journalism, but it has to be written well. I liked Toxin Toxout for example. I did not like:
1. The book switched countries/places so fast within a chapter, I found it hard to follow.
2. I did not feel that there was a good flow to the book. More like a random kid going however they please.
3. Some of the parts were boring and unnecessarily detailed.
4. I don't like it when books talk the entire length of the book about the problem but never attempt to offer some solutions (there may not be any but there must be something you think might help).

To be honest, he did offer a solution that was crammed in 5 lines at the end of the book.

Summary:
Do not trust organic labels. Know your local organic farmer. Buy from him/her. Grow your own food.

What about the rest of us who do not have access to their local organic farmer? Who live in flats and have no land and time for farming? Almost every organic thing I buy or have access to is from Australia or USA. Stuff from Thailand clearly are not to be trusted considering the information in the book.

[BookBec · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I was very interested in the premise (and troubled by the findings), I found the book to wander even more than its author did in his global search for the origins of his "organic" foods.

One problem for me was the shifting times and places: Laufer's in Vienna; no, Eugene; but briefly California; now back to that stay in Vienna...

And all the characters! Yes, I understand that Laufer's chronicling his experiences and that all these people were involved in his quest. But I got tired of reading about whether or not they looked like Whole Earth Catalog hippies and whether or not they ate organic at home or during their interviews. Also, a couple of characters were so vaguely outlined in early chapters that Laufer seemed to be saying they were unimportant, merely background for a connection or idea, and then they suddenly showed up in great detail later in the book, which was disconcerting.

I was also bothered by the fact that his book deadline took precedence over finishing his search. He's still waiting for answers from the USDA, but well, that's all the time we have now, folks.

Finally, a fish-eating vegetarian from the Pacific Northwest should know how to spell Mount Rainier (not Rainer) and coho salmon (not cojo! Is that a Mexican-Alaskan salmon?).

[Annett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nachdem Peter Laufer in seinem heimischen Bio-Markt "Bio"-Walnüsse aus Kasachstan und "Bio"-Bohnen aus Bolivien gekauft hat, macht er sich daran, diese Produkte zurückzuverfolgen, da er nicht recht glauben kann, dass er tatsächlich Bio-Ware in den Händen hält. Er dokumentiert seine Odyssee von einem U.S-amerikanischen Amt zum nächsten Zertifizierer und berichtet über seine Begegnungen mit "bio" in verschiedenen Ländern. Es wird deutlich, dass nach wie vor in vielen Bereichen der Zertifzierung (vor allem in den USA) keine Transparenz herrscht und das System zudem immer wieder umgangen wird. Im Zuge seiner Recherchen beleuchtet Peter Laufer sowohl Skandale um fälschlicher (und absichtlicher) Weise als "bio" deklarierte Lebensmittel als auch die Anstrengungen derer, für die "bio" eine Lebensphilosophie ist. Der Fokus auf dem Zertifizierungssystm der USA ist nachvollziehbar, aus meiner persönlichen Sicht aber nicht so interessant, da ich keine Bio-Lebensmittel aus den USA kaufe. Lesenswert ist die Reise durch die "Bio"-Welt aber allemal.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you really want to start a new diet, read this book. You will lose weight fast - just kidding. But while reading Organic: A Journalist's Quest to Discover the Truth Behind Food Labeling, I found myself beginning to question all food labeling, not just organic labeling. Then I started looking at everything while doing my grocery shopping. Amazing what we don't know, or what we take for granted. Mr. Laufer's book is an excellent study and interesting read and should be read by anyone who cooks or is interested in cooking and also interested in safer and/or greener food. The book also reinforced my ideas about eating out or buying prepared food. And finally, I really had to stop and think about places that I have considered to be on the up-and-up until I read this book. I realize that I should not only question food labeling and food safety but also question stores and restaurants. A must-read in my opinion for anyone who is buying and cooking food.

[Les]

Old news, but bottom line: if you don't grow your shit and know everything about what you use to grow it and the winds that pass over and through it or know for certain everything about the source, transportation, storage and distribution of what you purchase, when you say it's "organic" you're lying - first and foremost to yourself. The author is both oblivious (don't nobody care about storytelling regarding those damn beans that late in the game of the book and why oh why did you call homeboy your "amigo" - UGH!) and acutely aware and on point about how this global capitalism thing works and how it now works regarding food. This is exhaustive journalism. I never really trusted organic labeling, especially from corporations. When it comes to this certification issue, USDA tends to stand for U Silly Dumb Assess (that'd be the consumer).

[Metzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the basic reporting style in this book. It kept it more like a blog, a journey taken through all the run arounds. I do not envy all the time, phone calls, emails, and meetings it took to get to the bottom of his investigation. I am grateful for one real example because it gives a foundation on which to conduct further research on the racket that is The Food Industry. Reading this book has given me more of a desire to eat as much real food as there is, to understand the potential lies behind labeling, and to understand that on the whole we need to simply do the best we can. The Earth is contaminated and we humans continue furthering such.

[Cleokatra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm am environmental scientist though not an environmentalist. It's widely known within the scientific community that there are a lot of inconsistencies with regard to organic food. Many of the people who are most devoted to buying organic have no idea what the label means or what they are paying for. This book is a chronicle of a true believer, coming to grips with the reality of modern agriculture (both conventional and organic) and global commerce. It's an okay story. Three stars because of some biased and inflammatory word choices that rubbed me the wrong way and because there were some really distracting, off-topic rambles that made the book read like a blog in parts.

[Mary Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it has a definite bias toward discussing the USA organic market the author, a journalism professor from the University of Oregon, does visit Europe, middle Asia and South America on his hunt to find the source of Trader Joe’s organic walnuts (they were not) and Bolivian black beans (they were).
It’s an informative investigative text so if you have a keen interest in organic food and/or extensive travel you might be interested.

First heard about the book on National Public Radio and took it out at the public library. Enjoyed it a great deal though the results are disquieting.