From CNBC’s Nightly Business Report, 5 November 2015:

Excerpts:

Food bearing that USDA Certified Organic label isn’t actually checked by the USDA, but by third party contractors. And certifiers are paid by the farmer.

[The auditor] looked everything over but he did not take soil samples or test for pesticide residue.

Mischa Popoff, former organic certifier: “Sadly, we can’t trust the organic label right now, it’s a bureaucratic honor-based system.”

The bigger the industry grows, the bigger the challenge to police it, especially foreign foods certified as organic by foreign inspectors.