Capital Press Reading Activity
February 22, 2019
Another in the series of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom non-fiction text examples to be used in your classroom. These will be available every Friday morning at 7 a.m. during the school year.
These questions are designed to use in conjunction with a selected article from the Capital Press. To obtain access to an e-edition of Capital Press FREE to educators and students visit http://capitalpress.or.newsmemory.com/nie.php/ For more information about this program and ways to use it in your classroom visit the program webpage.
Article: ‘Criminal’ mentality helps detect organic fraud (Page 3)
Printable PDF
Questions:
- What is "organic fraud"?
- What are companies doing to attempt to detect and prevent fraud?
- What is one challenge with fraud detection and prevention mentioned in the article?
- What is the strategy the company Organic Valley is using?
- Why is it important to organic producers and companies to regulate fraud?
Answers:
- Organic fraud is falsely representing products as certified organic. (For more information, including a list of fraudulent certificates visit the USDA AMS here.)
- Companies are trying to identify holes in their supply chains, offer training plans to companies and understand the strategies of fraudulent behavior.
- Challenges include not being able to dictate terms to suppliers in the global food industry, convincing brokers to divulge the source of crops while not releasing suppliers and it is often difficult to identify an organic product from a conventional product.
- Organic Valley has begun working with organic certifiers who were able to provide generalized information rather than sensitive data.
- Answers will vary. It's important for organic products to be genuine in order to maintain consumer trust, receive fair payment for products, etc.
Archives of past editions are available here.
We welcome feedback or ideas to make this program as effective as possible! Please direct your questions or suggestions about this program to Jessica Jansen, Executive Director Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom jessica.jansen@oregonstate.edu.
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