Spring 2018 Logan County
Farm Outlook Magazine

Wading through the confusion of crop classification

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[April 03, 2018]  As with any other business, the agricultural industry comes with its own set of agreed-upon definitions. For crop farming, this means coming to a consensus over terms regarding crop production. These terms include concepts like cash crops, subsistence crops, specialty crops, organic crops, GMO’s, and non-GMO’s.

For the purposes of this article, crops are defined by the USDA as “plants that are cultivated either for sale or for subsistence.”

Some plants are considered to be specialty crops when cultivated.

A specialty crop, then, is defined as “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.”

According to the USDA, “in order for a plant to be considered cultivated, some form of management must be applied.”

This definition includes plant related bi-products harvested from “wild areas” that are documented for research purposes.

If a naturally occurring population of plants is managed by people, and satisfies the definition of a specialty crop, then those plants would be considered as such.

For the purpose of government programs, states may choose to define plants collected from the wild as specialty crops.

There is still some confusion in defining specialty crops with regard to horticulture.

 - Horticulture is defined by the USDA as “that branch of agriculture concerned with growing plants that are used by people for food, for medicinal purposes, and for aesthetic gratification.”

The reason for the confusion stems from the descriptions of these specializations. The descriptions refer to common usage, which differs from scientific language.

- For example, vegetables are frequently defined as herbaceous plants, of which some amount can be eaten raw or cooked as some sort of meal.

- Fruits on the other hand, are commonly eaten as a snack outside of a meal.

Take tomato or cucumber, which scientifically are classified as fruits; but by the above definition above those are eaten as vegetables.

Believe it or not, the description of plants by common usage required legal intervention in 1893 via a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Horticultural crops are still considered to be separate from what most people think of with regard to cash crops.

Cash crops are agricultural crops grown to sell and return a profit. Cash crops are usually purchased for sale on a large market.

The term cash crop is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food to be used by the immediate population.

Organic crops are sometimes considered different from specialty crops.

Organic products (crops or otherwise) have to be certified by the USDA, under one of four categories: crops, livestock, processed products, or wild crops.

Organic products have to be produced with the following requirements in mind:

- Produced without excluded methods, e.g., genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge

- produced using allowed substances

- overseen by a USDA National Organic Program-authorized certifying agent

- following all USDA organic regulations

Most farms and businesses that grow or sell organic products must be certified, such as farms or handlers, processors, and vendors that sell products online or otherwise deliver organic products to a customer, and make more than $5,000 doing so. Other operations may voluntarily apply for organic status, but it is not required.

Organic farming requires the growth of non-GMO products. Unfortunately, non-GMO products are not legally defined by federal or state government, nor are said products required to be identified as such.

According to journalist Elaine Watson, the lack of a clear definition leads to trouble for organic farmers and food marketers. According to both the FDA and the USDA, a GMO is defined as “an organism produced through genetic engineering.” The closest definition we could come to for a non-GMO product is one that is not produced through any kind of genetic modification, nor influenced by products that are. By example, beef may be sold that claims to be from a cow that was never fed GMO’s.

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Examples of such statements that might be found on non-GMO related products include:

“Not bioengineered.”

“Not genetically engineered.”

“Not genetically modified through the use of modern biotechnology.”

“We do not use ingredients that were produced using modern biotechnology.”

“This oil is made from soybeans that were not genetically engineered.”

“Our corn growers do not plant bioengineered seeds.”

The FDA currently does not require products to be labeled as such. One reason for this is because of the difficulty in interpreting the term genetically modified. According to the FDA guidelines:

“because the term ‘genetically modified’ can encompass any alteration to the genetic composition of a plant, including alterations achieved through traditional hybridization or breeding techniques, that term could apply to most cultivated food crops since most food crops are the product of selective breeding.

"An example of a food that is derived from a plant that has not been subject to any form of selective breeding might be berries collected from wild plant varieties.”

The FDA guidelines reiterate that “the ‘O’ in the acronym ‘GMO’ refers to the word ‘organism…’ In light of potential confusion regarding the meaning of the acronym, the FDA encourages manufacturers to consider the use of other types of statements to indicate that a plant-derived food has not been produced using bioengineering.” In other words, because of the confusion surrounding these labels, the FDA recommends avoiding the term GMO in some instances, because to do so might involve accidentally mislabeling products. In addition, most individual customers (those not representing a corporation) do not buy entire organisms at one time, meaning that a GMO is not technically found on most store shelves.

Every so often, a reminder of what these terms mean is useful for both farmers and non-farmers alike. These terms and definitions are intended for general educational purposes. They are not intended to replace any definitions currently in use in any U.S. Government laws or regulations. For specific definitions applying to laws or regulations, please consult directly with the relevant agency.

Sources

“Agricultural Biotechnology Glossary.” U.S. Department of Agriculture. https://www.usda.gov/topics/ biotechnology /biotechnology-glossary 

“Guidance for Industry: Voluntary Labeling Indicating Whether Foods Have or Have Not Been Derived from Genetically Engineered Plants.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration. November, 2015. https://www.fda.gov/Regulatory Information/Guidances/ucm059098.htm

“Organic Certification.” U.S. Department of Agriculture, www.ams.usda.gov/services/ organic-certification/certification.

“USDA Definition of Specialty Crop.” U.S. Department of Agriculture, https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/ default/files/ media/USDASpecialtyCrop Definition.pdf

Watson, Elaine. “With no clear legal definition, non-GMO claims legal minefield for food marketers.” Genetic Literacy Project. April 25, 2016. https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/04/25/with-no-clear-legal-definition-non-gmo-claims-legal-minefield-for-food-marketers/

 

Read all the articles in our new
Spring 2018 Logan County
Farm Outlook Magazine

Title
CLICK ON TITLES TO GO TO PAGES
Page
The Big Picture 4
Tax Bill 199a boost to coop elevators raises local concerns 8
Is a re-designed NAFTA an exercise in futility or just a political pawn? 13
The Dicamba dilemma:  turning neighbor against neighbor 17
Seed corn growers move out of Logan County 24
Impacts of wind and solar farms 27
Illinois Farmers get shor reprieve from EPA's restrictive WOTUS Act 31
Wading through the confusion of crop classification 35
Logan County corn and soybean 2017 crop yields 40

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