031267 Organic Industry Could Benefit From Tainted Beef

"Mad cow" disease is shaping up as a potential calamity for America's cattle industry. Yet one small segment may be looking at greener pastures: organic beef.

Although only four days have passed since a cow near Yakima, Wash., tested positive, organic beef producers and markets are seeing an increase in interest.

"Our phones are ringing off the hook," said Michael Levine, president of the Organic Meat Co. in La Farge, Wis., whose meats are sold in some California Whole Foods stores.

"We're getting calls from consumers who want to buy sides of beef, retailers, restaurants, and existing customers wanting to make sure we can fill their demand," he said.

To carry a green "certified organic" sticker from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, beef must be produced from cows raised only on organic grains and pasture.

That is a key reason for the interest in organic: Mad-cow disease is spread when cows eat feed that contains animal tissue, bone meal or similar byproducts from other cows or sheep. Such feed has been banned in the United States for cattle since 1997.

But USDA officials said Wednesday the Washington cow probably contracted it by eating illegal feed containing tainted animal parts. They are investigating to find out where the feed came from and how many other cows, if any, ate it.

"My cattle are vegetarians. That's not necessarily true with all cattle," said Charles Fowler, a fourth- generation rancher who raises organic beef in Lake County.

America's national organic standards, enacted by the USDA in 2002 for fruits, vegetables and meat, do not permit cows to be fed genetically engineered ingredients, antibiotics or hormones. And the animals must be provided daily access to pastures.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has assured the nation it is safe to eat beef. Even though meat from the Washington animal was sent to packing houses and probably supermarkets, the animal's brains and spinal cord -- the portions where mad-cow disease is centered -- had been removed and sent to a rendering plant. Dozens of scientists agreed the risk of an outbreak like the one that killed more than 100 people in England in the 1990s is minimal.

As a result, critics say there is no need to buy organic beef, which typically costs at least double the price of conventional beef. "You're talking about an infinitesimal risk of transmission in conventional beef to begin with," said David Martosko, research director at the Center for Consumer Freedom, a Washington, D.C., organization funded by the food and restaurant industry.

"If you're going to pay an extra 40%, 50% or 100% for organic beef you may feel warm and fuzzy, but you are not harvesting any real benefit."

Critics of the USDA, including many organic food advocates, say state and federal officials do not oversee feed mills and rendering plants sufficiently. They say that consumers who want extra levels of confidence, as well as the knowledge their hamburger or steak didn't come from a factory farm, should consider organic. And they say organic farms must keep much more detailed records about their animals and where feed came from than conventional farms.

"A lot of people are going to make a fundamental decision to change their buying habits," said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation in Santa Cruz. "It is something they can control."

Organic farming, dominated by fruits and vegetables, is now a $9 billion industry with a 20% annual growth rate. Still, less than 1% of all beef raised in the U.S. is organic.

Nutrition Business Journal estimated that sales of natural and organic meat, fish and poultry totaled $763 million in 2002. That represents a tiny fraction of all U.S. food sales, but is up 25% from the previous year.

"Oh, if I buy beef at all -- which is rarely -- I buy organic," said Gina Pearlin, who was checking out the meat counter at New Leaf natural food store in Santa Cruz on Friday. "Mostly, I don't eat beef. But on the rare occasions when I do, it's organic."

Those sentiments seem on the increase. "People are definitely asking more questions," said Nick Stegeman, a butcher at Whole Foods in Los Gatos. "They want to know if our cattle has anything to do with the outbreak. We're telling them they're safe. Our beef is not handled the same as those animals were."

Until now, the organic beef industry has been so small that many large supermarket chains don't carry it. In recent months several have begun asking, said Seldon Moreland, a spokesman for Dakota Beef, in Chicago, which bills itself as the nation's largest organic beef producer. Large supermarkets will have it in the next few months, he predicted.

Source: Mercury News (California)

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