Let’s face the facts — organic food, ESPECIALLY organic import food, gets costly. You’re paying a premium for the health benefit of organic produce, and there’s no way around it. The concept of all the painstaking process to ensure organic quality is a bit less cost-efficient than some of the methods necessary to bring quality groceries into supermarkets under the conventional way (non-organic). Is it worth it to pay a little extra? Absolutely. Sadly, some suppliers see it differently, but you can’t blame the issue —

Organic Import Fraud Really Is All About Money. Plain and Simple.

And it shows in overwhelming evidence. Case in point, look at the Ukraine.

It was recently revealed thart the Ukraine shipped out supposedly organic import stock of an amazing 36MM pounds of purely conventional soybeans (no way of knowing for sure) from Turkey to California and somehow, magically, became certified ORGANIC. It’s as if the import along the way somehow by supernatural means developed all the characteristics of organic food.

Cheap imports. That’s the name of the game. If we could just get that good stuff, ensure that it’s “organic” (again, we have NO WAY of knowing that it will be since it’s overseas) at a much lower price and then put our 100% USDA organic-approved-guaranteed stamp on it, sell it at a premium, and make some sort of a profit in our market, then we’re going to do it. It’s about money.

Sadly, the public suffers greatly.

Forget the Fact That This Is a Potential Safety Threat

I mean, there’s no way of knowing how these soybeans were grown and handled. Who knows what materials got carried with it on the trip overseas. Lots of variables and question marks there that can make any organic foodie kind of nervous. Again, though, it’s about the MONEY. Dollar signs. And we pay the price.

You can’t blame the industry, though, because a lot of mechanics go into ensuring that it works like a well-oiled machine. You’ve got retail, supply, demand, logistics. To keep it going, some kind of profit needs to be made somewhere. If not, eventually, we’re looking at a loss nationwide that’ll fold in on itself, and all for the price of people getting their organic food at a much lower cost (which is how it should be).

It’s just not the way it works. However, given the safety threat, there’s the burgeoning issue already stockpiling about other fraudulent shipments of organic grains going around, forcing the USDA to take a lot of action and undergo investigations.

The sad thing is this: that’ll cost all suspected parties a fine of up to $11K — PER VIOLATION. You can see the problem here. It’s, again, a money issue. And not a health one.

Just Another Reason Why Imports Are a Big Problem, Which Is Why….

You just have to go local! It’s an absolute. Of course, if you live around the Bay area in California, that’s easy. YOU JUST SIGN UP FOR GOLDEN GATE ORGANICS and keep it all within our good earth, right at home. Right where we belong.

We, however, don’t claim to be the answer to the huge problem the entire organic food industry is seeing. But it’s a telltale sign:

We’re doing something right. It’s our hope that someday soon the RIGHT will follow suit everywhere else.