The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have approved their use. Now, Beavis said, the challenge of keeping them separate from organic foods is baffling. A crop that escapes drifting pollen could still be contaminated in a cooperative's grain elevator or at a mill. You want to work with people, but it can be hard for both sides. Sometimes nature can help.
Soybeans are self-pollinating, so the wind poses no genetic contamination.
Most corn varieties favored by organic farmers tassel later in the season than those used by conventional farmers. For years, a crop's organic pedigree came from inspectors such as Margit Kaltenekker, who travels a circuit checking on farms for the Organic Crop Improvement Association. She looks at fields, discusses management techniques and peruses a farmer's receipts for seed and fertilizer to establish the absence of chemical helpers. In today's agriculture, however, many organic farmers are also spending hundreds of dollars per field for genetic tests to prove their crops avoided contamination. They can do everything right and still have things ruined by the guy a mile away.