Should hydroponics be considered organic?

Added on 17 February 2022

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Should hydroponics be considered organic?

Over the past year 2021, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and the Coalition for Sustainable Organics (CSO) have debated whether hydroponics should continue to be eligible for organic certification. The original discussion started when the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) considered recommending that USDA revoke the ability for hydroponic, aquaponic, aeroponic, and other container-based growing methods to be certified organic.

Recently, the Organic Produce Network provided an update from both sides of the debate. CSO is currently working with a team of lawyers to write an amici curiae (friends of the court) brief in support of hydroponics in organic agriculture. The organization believes hydroponics should continue to be eligible for organic certification for a number of reasons.

"The CSO is all in on the lawsuit," says CSO Executive Director Lee Frankel, referring to the legal action taken by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and several other plaintiffs against the USDA in 2020. The lawsuit came about after CFS filed a petition in 2019 asking the USDA to engage in rulemaking based on the NOSB Spring 2010 formal recommendation to prohibit hydroponics from being eligible for organic certification. (The 2010 NOSB recommendation defined hydroponics as "the production of normally terrestrial, vascular plants in nutrient rich solutions or in an inert, porous, solid matrix bathed in nutrient rich solutions.")

Read Frankel's complete thoughts here.

On the other side of the coin, CFS continues to oppose hydroponics in organic agriculture. In March 2021, the US District Court for Northern California ruled against the CFS, a sustainable agriculture nonprofit, and several other plaintiffs in their fight against the eligibility of hydroponics for organic certification. Two months later, CFS filed an appeal.

"We chose to appeal the decision because as a result of the court agreeing with USDA, it has resulted in an uneven playing field for the organic crop producers," says Sylvia Wu, a senior attorney and Managing Attorney of the California and Hawaii offices of CFS. "Hydroponic operations are now exempt from the soil fertility requirement, which the statute clearly commands for all crop producers. It says to be a crop producer and be certified organic, you 'shall foster soil fertility.'"