Mushroom growers criticize U-turn on new organic rules
Growers of white mushrooms, which make up the bulk of mushroom sales in the U.S., use compost substrate, while specialty mushrooms such as shiitakes are grown from substrate made of sawdust and byproducts from crops such as rice, wheat and almonds. “Mushrooms are very absorbent,” Garrone said. “They get their flavor profiles and nutritional elements from the wood and material they grow from.” The new regulations for organic mushrooms imposed more stringent
processes to ensure each component of a mushroom farm’s substrate is produced organically. Garrone and other farmers cautioned that the regulations could be a “heavy lift” for smaller specialty mushroom farms that may lack the economies of scale to purchase large quantities of agricultural byproducts to make their own substrate. But overall, he said, the regulations were needed to give consumers confidence or- ganic mushrooms are truly organic.
By Caleb Hampton Organic mushroom growers and trade groups have criticized a proposed rule announced last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would rescind the National Organic Program’s recently adopted Market Development for Mushrooms and Pet Food regulations. The regulations,
With regard to mushroom and pet food regulations specifically, the group said, “USDA’s proposed rollback would undo over 15 years of stakeholder collaboration.” Commercial mushroom farms typically grow the fungi indoors by introducing spawn, or mycelium, to substrate composed of compost or woody materials.
See MUSHROOMS, Page 6
issued in December, were intended to address inconsisten-
cies in standards used to certify organic mushrooms and pet food, with the goal of instilling greater consumer confidence in the processes used to produce them. “Reversing the recently established framework for organic mushroom and pet food production will undermine the domestic organic market and harm U.S. farmers by hampering market develop- ment and eroding trust in the organic seal,” Rebekah Weber, policy director for California Certified Organic Farmers, said in a June 4 letter to the National Organic Program Standards Division, which is part of USDA. Mushroom growers and organic trade groups say the 2024 regulations were de- veloped through a years-long process that involved close collaboration with farmers and industry stakeholders. “We as an industry decided that’s how we’d like to set it up—the standards that we put in place for ourselves to follow,” said Ian Garrone, CEO of Far West Fungi, an organic specialty mushroom farm in Monterey County that supplies grocery re- tailers such as Safeway and Whole Foods. Farmers and trade groups said USDA’s decision to rescind the new regulations appeared to have been made unilateral- ly. The department did not consult stake- holders, they said, and it bypassed the National Organic Standards Board, which typically votes to approve potential regu- latory actions before recommending them to USDA. Organic trade groups warned that the circumvention of that process could jeop- ardize the confidence consumers have in organic products in general, not just mush- rooms or pet food. “This departure from established pro- tocol threatens to undermine stakeholder trust and the integrity of the organic regu- latory process while also setting a troubling precedent,” the Organic Trade Association said last month in a statement.
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June 18, 2025 Ag Alert 3
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