Flash in the Pan

Last week I mentioned a New York Times story about the U.S. Department of Agriculture adding more inorganic ingredients to the list of those that can go into food labeled as organic. In my post, I mentioned Annie's Homegrown, whose CEO, John Foraker, the story quoted. Apparently someone using the name John F, apparently from Annie's, tried to post a comment anonymously on the entry. Instead of allowing the entry, I decided to look at it graph by graph.

I just came across your piece on this....Here is what I wrote on another blog to get the facts straight...

There is a whole lot of confusion around this issue, Here are the facts vis a vis the NY Times piece and the letter I wrote to the FDA on the issue...

I somehow doubt that the CEO himself is reading blog entries on this issue; I would have guessed a PR factotum. But as it was posted at 10:12 in the evening, who knows? Though as they're based in California, that's probably actually just after 7PM. And I just came across this comment on a site that was new to me, Ethicurean.com, which is about "sustainable, organic, local, and/or ethical" food. Pretty cool, and I'll be adding it to my links.

Most importantly: Annie's is in no way seeking to undermine the organic standards. In fact, the organic standards are being tightened in this new process, and we completely support that! The USDA previously offered a blanket exemption for non-organic ingredients, like annatto, to be used in Certified Organic products when the ingredient is not commercially available in organic form. Recent changes in the organic guidelines (due to the Harvey lawsuit) now require manufacturers like us to get specific USDA pre-approval for any trace ingredient which is natural, but not organic, in a product that is Certified Organic at the 95% level. Approval for these trace ingredients will only be granted when there is no viable organic alternative for the ingredient.

Literally what this says is that under an older set of standards, a company could use non-organic for up to 5% of the ingredients when the ingredient wasn't commercially available in an organic form. Now a company has to get pre-approval to use a non-organic ingredient when there is no viable organic alternative - which could actually be even looser than commercially available. If the product were commercially available but too expensive, a company could technically argue that it was a non-viable alternative. And we're talking about a list of pre-approved ingredients, so what's the big difference?

We have been making organic mac & cheese colored with annatto since 1998, and have been completely in compliance with the letter, and spirit of the organic National Organic Program guidelines. The product in question, Organic Shells and Real Aged Cheddar, is Certified Organic at the 95% level (it’s actually 99.4% organic), and always has been. The only non-organic ingredient is the natural color derived from annatto seed, a plant used by native cultures throughout history, and widely used to add color to natural and organic products. My letter to the USDA requested that annatto be added to the list of specifically pre-approved ingredients so that our product can continue to be legally labeled “Certified Organic” at the 95% level, as it has been since introduction to market.

Yes, I think we all understand that food coloring isn't going to be a big percentage of the ingredients. I'm sure many of us are familiar with annatto seeds, which you can commonly find in Latin food shops because it's often used in Central and South American cooking. And thanks for letting us know that it was Annie's that was looking for the annatto exemption.

If we could find organic annatto, in the quantity, quality, and efficacy we need, we would use it, even if it were more expensive. We have been searching trying to qualify a source for a long time. I am sure we will eventually succeed. However, while we continue that effort, we need to ensure our ability to remain within the law; that is why I wrote the letter to the USDA, to ensure that annatto was not overlooked in the process.

Fair enough - the quote did mention that you weren't getting a deep enough color from the organic. But maybe, just maybe, you could have a somewhat paler artificially colored mac and cheese. It could still be toward the orange end of the spectrum. The driving force to buy Annie's will be parents, not kids, and the parents just want something that appeases to some degree the child's demand for the Kraft blue box. And there do seem to be bulk producers of organic annatto, though as Ethicurean.com points out, it's about four times as expensive and the non-organic.

You may believe, and there are certainly others that agree, that there is no place for colored Mac & cheese. Why not just offer white? Well, we do offer white and it is very popular. However, there are millions of kids in America that have been convinced by decades of advertising from a large company that makes macaroni and cheese that shall remain nameless, that Mac and cheese should be orange/yellow. Overcoming that is difficult. In fact, we received thousands of letters from consumers asking us for an orange mac & cheese product. So, we bridge to give these kids and their parents a path to organic that they will accept, and adopt into their everyday life. The more consumers we bring into the organic tent, the better off we and the planet will be.

Let's be frank - this is really about marketing and sales and the needs of the business, not about creating a path to organic. It's easier to make the sale when you have both types. I'm not arguing that - heck, your company wants to keep growing, and I understand that. And there are many expectations that cheddar cheese itself should be an orange color because so much of it has been dyed for so long, even though real cheddar might be a pale yellow because of whatever the cows eat. But I think you have to admit that the driving force isn't necessarily the good of others, even though that does clash with your overall branding. This is where businesses have problems. Branding is a communication of an espoused way of doing business and existing as a company. Things get uncomfortable when corporate practices start differing. I think that's what bothers people like me, and what makes things uncomfortable for CEOs.

Annie’s has long been a leader in converting consumers and the mainstream food companies toward more organic products. For example, I am very proud that there are now >16,000 acres of precious farmland that are now growing wheat for Annie’s organically, rather than through the unsustainable practices of conventional farming. This is just one example. We are part of the solution, not the problem.

So why not hold off on yellow until you can get the organic source? And, to be fair, you haven't been converting consumers. It really bothers me when companies think that they're the ones in the drivers seat when often they aren't. Consumers have been moving toward organic foods because they have seen so many problems with commercial agriculture over many years and they want something more trustworthy. Companies like yours have been able to grow because of the demand. You aren't converting them; they're converting the market and making it possible for your business to exist. There are 16,000 acres of wheat that are now organic and sold to you because consumers want organic and farmers want the higher and more sustainable prices that organic crops offer. It's the consumer demand that is the solution, and you are benefiting from it. When you start doing things that appear to be backing away from that demand, consumers don't like it. When people ask for orange mac and cheese, why not say that it doesn't exist and part of the reason you get organic is to avoid that level of artificiality?

There is a detailed FAQ on our website for additional information about Annie's position on this subject. The link is:

http://www.annies.com/faqs/annatto_organic_standards.htm

It largely repeats what is already here.

Labels: annatto, Annie's, FDA, organic, standards