Friday, August 12, 2022
CapitalPress.com 9
USDA argues against prohibiting organic hydroponics
tiffs then filed their lawsuit
claiming the denial violated
OFPA.
Critics believe hydro-
ponically grown crops have
benefitted large “corporate”
greenhouse operators while
flouting organic law and
philosophy.
Organic
producers
who rely on such methods
believe that opponents are
using an overly restrictive
definition of organic agricul-
ture to suppress competition
in the industry.
Last year, Chief U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Richard Seeborg
in San Francisco sided with
USDA, ruling that it’s enti-
tled to deference in allowing
soil-less methods in organic
agriculture.
Though critics claim
the OFPA prohibits organic
hydroponics, the law doesn’t
actually mention such meth-
ods, Seeborg said. Despite
its requirement to improve
soil health, the statute
“doesn’t compel any action”
regarding hydroponics, See-
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
borg said.
“One soil fertility pro-
vision nestled in one para-
graph of one subsection can-
not alter the character of the
entire statute,” he said.
The Center for Food
Safety claims the ruling
was wrongly decided, argu-
ing that USDA’s refusal to
ban hydroponics has under-
mined OFPA’s purpose of
ensuring consistency in the
organic market.
“We have two sets of
identical tomatoes, except
only some of them live
up to the true meaning of
organic,” Wu said.
The USDA argues that
the legislative history of the
OFPA supports the conclu-
sion that hydroponics aren’t
bound by the soil health pro-
vision required in organic
farm plans.
“There’s very good rea-
son to think that organic
plan requirements for crop
production farm plans don’t
apply to hydroponic opera-
tions,” Winik said.
The USDA is urging
a federal appeals court to
reject arguments that organic
crops must be grown in soil
and never with hydroponic
production methods.
Critics claim that organic
certification
should
be
revoked from hydroponic
operations because they can-
not foster soil fertility as
required by law.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals must now decide
whether a lawsuit opposed to
hydroponics in organic agri-
culture was wrongly dis-
missed last year.
Several soil-based organic
farms and affiliated non-
profit groups have asked
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File
the 9th Circuit to overturn Hydroponic butter leaf lettuce grows in a greenhouse. Opponents of hydroponics in
the judge’s conclusion that organic agriculture claim the USDA has unlawfully allowed soil-less methods in or-
hydroponic operations don’t ganic production.
need to comply with the
The
USDA,
which requirement, if soil were as regulations need only per-
soil-building requirement of
enforces organic regulations, central to organic produc- tain to soil-based organic
organic law.
“The words ‘organic’ and countered that the Organic tion as plaintiffs suggest,” he operations. The Center for
Food Safety and other plain-
‘organic farming’ refer to soil Foods Production Act’s soil said.
Hydroponics have been
organic matter. So soil-build- fertility rule simply isn’t
ing is the foundation of the intended to apply to hydro- debated in organic agri-
culture for years, with the
environmental benefits that ponic production.
The agency’s interpreta- National Organic Stan-
consumers associate with the
Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association
organic label,” said Sylvia tion is more plausible than dards Board originally rec-
Wu, an attorney for the Cen- the claim that OFPA’s soil ommending that USDA ban
ter for Food Safety nonprofit, health provision is meant such methods in 2010 but
during recent oral arguments. to ban organic hydroponics then voting down a similar
In hydroponic systems, entirely, said Daniel Winik, motion in 2017.
August 31 st , 2022 @ West Salem Roth’s
plants commonly grow in attorney for the federal
In 2019, the USDA
containers filled with a soil- government.
rejected a petition that
RSVP by August 15 th
less medium, such as perlite,
hydroponic
“That would have been demanded
and are fed with liquid nutri- a surpassingly strange way methods be prohibited, con-
• ➢ 8:30 a.m. Coffee & Refreshments
ent solutions.
for Congress to create a soil cluding that soil-fertility
Annual Meeting
• ➢ 9:00 a.m. Meeting
Feds urge dismissal of farm’s
lawsuit against wetland projects
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The USDA has asked a
federal judge to dismiss a
lawsuit that alleges it helped
finance wetland projects that
disrupted a Washington irri-
gator’s water supply.
Round Lake Farms, a
hay grower and distribu-
tor near Soap Lake, Wash.,
claims the wetlands retain
water that would other-
wise replenish its irrigation
source.
Typically, a creek down-
stream of the wetlands
would rise enough in spring
for water to spill into Round
Lake, on which the farm
relies for summer irrigation,
according to the farm.
The farm’s lawsuit claims
the construction of wetlands
has reduced the amount of
water flowing into the lake
or even disconnected it from
creek flows, as occurred in
2020 and 2021.
Though the eight projects
are on private property, the
USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service pro-
vided funding and techni-
cal expertise to convert the
2,200 acres of farmland into
wetlands.
The farm argues that
USDA didn’t obtain required
state reservoir permits for
the wetland projects or ade-
quately study their impacts
on senior water rights.
The complaint seeks
compensation for $320,000
the farm spent on alterna-
tive irrigation sources and
$80,000 it paid to consul-
tants who investigated the
problem. The farm also
wants a federal judge to
order the wetlands removed
or for USDA to mitigate
their effects.
According to the USDA,
the creek frequently failed to
reach the “significant flood
stage” needed to fill the
lake long before the agency
began buying wetland ease-
ments in the area about 20
years ago.
The USDA claims the
farm only began complain-
ing about insufficient water
levels in the lake after it was
issued a warning by state
environmental regulators,
who believed it was with-
drawing excess water for
irrigation.
For example, the farm
accused a nearby land-
owner of building an illegal
dam across the creek, but
state regulators investigated
and found no violation, the
agency said.
Before it filed the federal
lawsuit, the farm made alle-
gations against the wetland
projects that were likewise
rejected by the state Depart-
ment of Ecology, according
to USDA. State regulators
have the “exclusive enforce-
ment authority” over water
law, so the farm doesn’t
have a private right of action
against the USDA.
Furthermore, the USDA
claims the federal court lacks
jurisdiction over the case. In
regard to the wetland resto-
ration program, the agency
said it hasn’t waived the
“sovereign immunity” that
shields the government from
lawsuits.
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