For organic hops farmers in Wash., gov. obstacles

It wasn't until recently that Moxee farmer Pat Smith finished selling a crop of organic hops that he grew two years ago.

But he's still sitting on another 100 bales from a more recent harvest.

"We'll probably sell them all eventually," he said. "It takes longer than it should."

That's because Smith and a small handful of other Yakima Valley organic hop growers are struggling against federal regulations that allow brewers to use less expensive non-organic hops to make beer that can be sold under the organic label.

Now, Smith and the others are petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture to require brewers to use organic hops in beer labeled organic.

Their petition will be considered when the USDA's National Organic Standards Board meets next week in Madison, Wis.

"We suspect if the petition was successful, we'd be able to sell them quite a bit quicker," said Smith, who also farms 700 acres of non-organic hops.

Quicker, and at a price that reflects the higher cost of growing organically, said Toppenish hop grower Jason Perrault, who grows both organic and nonorganic hops.

Rather than spraying herbicides, workers remove weeds from fields by hand. That costs about $7,000 an acre compared with about $5,000 for nonorganic hops.

With nonorganic hops selling for about $6 a pound, organic growers need a price at least double that, Smith said.

At least one craft brewer, Fremont Brewing in Seattle, believes that the state could easily lead the nation's organic hops industry because it's already one of the largest hop producers in the world.

"The point of all this is not that we have an angle," said Fremont Brewing owner Matt Lincecum. "The point is that we are in a position and have a responsibility. We're committed to help jump start the (organic hops) industry."

Three years ago, the USDA allowed hops grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides to be used in beer labeled organic, saying organic hop production in the United States wasn't big enough to keep up with demand from organic beer makers.

The ruling places hops on a list of about 30 products, including wheat germ and sausage casings, that don't have to be organically produced to be used in food or beverages labeled organic.

As a result, many organic brewers -- which still only account for a sliver of the brewing market -- buy conventionally grown, less expensive, hops.

There are four organic hop growers in the Yakima Valley, including Smith. Their organic crops account for about 100 acres, just a tiny share of the Valley's 30,500 acres of hops.

The Valley accounts for more than 30 percent of the world's hops production.

Organic production in the Valley has grown from nearly none three years ago to its current 100 acres, but organic growers say they need a better market to survive.

"The future is pretty bleak without a commitment from organic brewers," Smith said.

The dilemma isn't unique to hops, said Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association in Washington, D.C.

Allowing nonorganic ingredients into products labeled organic often prevents expansion of organic production, she said.

Although products on the list are supposed to be reviewed after five years, most of them have remained on the list long after that, she said.

"It seems like it's awfully hard to get things off the list once they are put on," she said. "If you're a producer, it makes it tough."

Efforts to produce organic ingredients typically wither without ever establishing a market, said Urvashi Rangan, director of technical policy for Consumer Reports in Yonkers, N.Y.

"The issue with hops highlights a bit of a systemic problem with the organic industry," she said. "When there is a temporary allowance, five years, it's supposed to be reassessed. That seems to be a painful step for the USDA's National Standards Board to take and there has been a lot of controversy over it."

But Soo Kim, spokeswoman for the USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service in Washington, D.C., said the board only makes recommendations based on what it hears from the industries and the public.

"It's a fully public integrated process," she said.

Hops should be reassessed in three years, at which time the National Organic Program could keep it on the list.

The National Organic Standards Board is recommending that hops remain listed until 2013 to give brewers two seasons to secure contracts for organic hops.

The board's recommendation will be open to public comment before it goes to the National Organic Program, which makes the final decision.

Not everyone in the hop industry wants to see a change.

Moxee hop grower Ed. St. Mary, who also chairs the Washington Hop Commission, said if organic brewers were forced to use organic hops, it would drive them to overseas markets because only a few varieties are produced organically here.

Of the 35 varieties of hops grown in the Yakima Valley, only five are grown organically.

While labor costs are considerably more for organic farmers, production simply isn't meeting demand yet, he said, while noting that his comments don't reflect the official stance of the Hop Commission.

"I can't blame the guys for trying to develop a market for organic hops. I don't blame them for trying to get a premium price," he said. "But on the other hand, I think they want to create an exclusive market for their hops by having brewers buy organic hops when they don't have to."

But there is also a force behind efforts to require the use of organic hops. Some brewers, even Anheuser-Bush, have submitted letters in the petition in support of the move.

Consumer Reports and the Organic Consumers Association, a nonprofit public interest organization based in Finland, Minn., have also gotten behind the effort.

Forcing organic brewers to use organically produced hops would spawn great incentive for farmers to grow them and create a market at the same time, Perrault said.

But if that doesn't happen, he plans to yank his 18 acres of organic hops from his field and replace it with a different organic crop.

"If there's no market, then there's no reason to do it," he said.

For some brewers, using organic hops in organically labeled beer is a matter of principle.

Blackfoot River Brewing Company in Montana buys organic hops from the Yakima Valley and New Zealand and is willing to pay $18 a pound for them, three times higher then the price of conventional hops.

"It's definitely a truth in label for me," said managing partner Brian Smith. "For those customers keyed into organic, it would be important to them."

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Information from: Yakima Herald-Republic, http://www.yakimaherald.com