Most of our clients are certified organic under existing organic standards (some are biodynamic, natural, hormone or chemical-free). All of our clients have one thing in common: they want to provide their customers with a verifiable degree of assurance by randomly testing crops and livestock to ensure no prohibited substances were used, as well as assurance that positive steps are being taken to improve sustainability.

We've been testing organic crops and livestock in the field since 2003, and every year more farmers, processors, broker/traders, wholesalers and retailers contact us to find out how to build their integrity.

We also like hearing from consumers of organic food since they're the ones who pick up the final bill. Contact us and join the movement!

Answers to common objections to testing organics

Conventional produce can test pure if you wait long enough.

That’s why we test Canadian organic crops in the field. An organic crop should be fit for consumption at any time from seed to table. Conventional growers can’t say that. We also check fallow fields to make sure they're not being "boosted" or "cleaned" with any prohibited substances during off-seasons. Best of all it's all done randomly on an unannounced basis.

If testing replaces paperwork we’ll lose traceability.

Testing doesn’t replace paperwork. All farmers are expected to have full traceback. The problem is when an organic inspector wastes time examining traceability instead of looking at the real world. Paperwork can be handled like a tax return: through snail mail or by email, with the certifier following up only if there are problems.

Testing might incriminate an organic farmer who’s a victim of spray drift.

If proper buffers are in place, the difference in toxicity between a conventional crop directly sprayed and the edge of a neighbouring crop touched by spray drift, is 10,000 to 100,000 times. I test away from the border and never obtained a positive result.

More important, an organic farmer is supposed to ensure his crops are NOT touched by spray drift. Tell your neighbour not to spray when the wind blows your way, otherwise you’ll sue for loss of income for the full 36 months required to bring that land back into organic production.

You’re just promoting fear-mongering! Are you saying organic farmers are dishonest?

Consumers purchased almost $20 billion of organic products in North America last year. They think “certified” means tested because that’s what it means in every other industry. It’s not that organic farmers are dishonest, it’s that it’s human nature to exploit an opportunity like the one offered by paper trail certification. Imagine the new world records we’d see at the Olympics if athletes weren’t tested.

New federal standards in Canada will eliminate fraud and negligence.

With more bureaucracy they won’t. I’ve been lobbying the CFIA in Ottawa, the USDA's NOP in Washington, and IFOAM in Europe for random testing since July 2001 when I found Roundup containers and a backpack sprayer on an “organic” farm. No luck… yet.

My customers trust me, so I don’t need a test!

Then why bother getting certified in the first place?

Are you just promoting organic field testing for the money?

I hope some day to make the same living from testing organic farms as I once did inspecting their paperwork. Thus far I have not made any profit from the organic industry since I performed my last paper-based inspection back in 2003.

A final thought...

Consumers, like farmers, are endowed with a predilection for commonsense. The shrinking group of people opposed to organic testing can say whatever they want about what they think organic is about, but consumers want a random test.

What better way to live up to consumer expectation than to test in the field or pasture, right in the environment where the crop or livestock grow?

Funny how farmers and consumers see eye to eye. Why fight common sense?