HelpfulGardener.com

A [url=https://www.kget.com/news/local/story/Local-FBI-raid-has-some-wondering-Are-organic/8vxowiSu90uDIZ-9cJPBfw.cspx]disturbing report out of California[/url] about a fertilizer maker under investigation by the FBI for spiking their fertilizer with synthetic chemicals to boost nitrogen levels, instead of using fish meal. If true, this could affect almost 50% of all organic produce from California that was grown with fish based fertilizers.

Industry sources estimate Port Organics produced up to half of the fish-based liquid fertilizer used on the state's organic farms in recent years. ...environmental health officers fined the company $10,000 in 2007 after they found chemicals not authorized for use by the county, and a 10,000 gallon tank containing aqueous ammonia stored underground.

Kern County Environmental Health Director Matt Constantine says while he's not sure what's going to happen with the federal probe of port organics, his office may still pursue a criminal complaint with the district attorney, because the company has failed to clean up its act.

And if you think this is an isolated incident, think again. There's a report of another fake organic fertilizer maker that was found in 2004 to be selling fake organic fertilizer yet was allowed to keep selling it for almost three more years. This producer controlled a third of the market. The California Senate is going to hold hearings to find out how this was allowed to happen.

The Sacramento Bee reported in December that the California Department of Food and Agriculture knew Salinas-based California Liquid Fertilizer was using synthetic nitrogen in its fertilizer and waited two and a half years before taking punitive action.

A whistleblower brought the case to the department's attention in June 2004, according to the Bee's report. Rather than take quick action, the agency pursued an obscure settlement wherein the company's tainted product was quietly pulled from shelves in January 2007.

The company controlled up to a third of the fast-growing organic market in California.

This is beyond awful. Concepts like corruption, sloth, on the take, and bribes come to mind. I have no idea whether or which of these concepts may apply here, but the very possibility of such adulteration and its undermining of law-abiding organic farmers' conscientious practices and their crops makes me ill.

For home gardeners, it's often practical to take charge of creating our own fertilizers by composting, driving to stables for horse manure, raking up leaves, etc.

But for an organic farm, these practices are generally cost-prohibitive due to the intense labor required which is not directly associated with planting, tending, and harvesting the food crops.

This company, and any other(s) indulging in similar adulteration of honest products, deserves to be put out of business if the allegations prove true. The company needs to pay full restitution to any organic farmers it harmed, AND it needs to pay additional punitive damages, perhaps in the form of a public education/industry education program about the practices and benefits of organically grown foods.

N.B. The melamine toxicities in pet food, baby formula, chocolate, ad inf. were (and still are being) caused by the desire to "hit the numbers" w/regard to nitrogen content in these commodities. A high nitrogen content => a high protein content. Melamine, and now anhydrous ammonia, is cheaper than "the real thing," no matter what "the real thing" is--cow's milk, fish bodies, wheat gluten--so it was used to increase profit margin in these, and most likely other, products.

Anhydrous ammonia?! extremely basic (= caustic) and has been known to create toxic subsurface conditions in uncontained-release situations...

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9