21
Nov
As Organic Beer Market Grows, Connoisseurs of Organic Cold Ones Can Be Proud of This Story
Image: USDA Organic label in public domain, integrated from Wikimedia Commons
(Beyond Pesticides, November 21, 2024) Be it Patagonia Provisions or Brooklyn Brewery, there is a buzz around organic beer that is increasingly evident given interest by brewing and food companies. The expansion of the organic beer market in the United States would not have been possible without the leadership of advocates, farmers, breweries, and the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), which led to the strengthening of organic standards for beer back in 2010. The growth of this sector and transition to truly organic beer speaks to the spirit of “continuous improvement,†the original design of Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), and the importance of mobilizing the public to engage in the public input process that continues to keep organic law strong in opposition to those seeking an easier path to the organic label.
Continuous Improvement and Organic Hops
In the original drafting of OFPA, advocates came together to determine how to encourage the development of certified organic sectors despite the lack of available, verifiable organic inputs at the time for many products—beer included. With this spirit in mind, the improvement of standards for beer encapsulates the significance of OFPA in the context of its flexibility, incentives, and the statutory intent to encourage public input to strengthen the integrity of organic standards. This oversight process—with public, organic grower, and scientific input, and the authority of the stakeholders (environmentalists, consumers, growers, retailers, certifiers, and scientists) on the NOSB to manage the allowed substances in organic production and processing—operationalizes the underlying principle of continuous improvement in the law. Nonorganic ingredients, up to five percent of total product ingredients, are allowed in products labeled organic with the showing that these ingredients are not “commercially available.†This allowance was intended by the drafters of the law to incentivize innovation, development of environmentally sensitive materials, and expansion of organic production by those seeking a market opportunity for organically produced ingredients. In the spirit of continuous improvement, the American Organic Hop Growers Association and their formal 2009 petition urged the removal of the exemption that allowed nonorganic hops in organically labeled beer.
Beer is mostly water, and so, in the early years of OFPA, beer producers could rely on non-organic hops since this ingredient is less than five percent of total product ingredients and still label their beer organic. The situation created a bit of a chicken-and-the-egg problem, because as long as the law allowed the use of nonorganic hops, brewers were not looking for organic hops, and growers did not produce them in large quantities. In other words, even though growers of hops showed that the crop could be grown organically, it was not produced to supply the market because lower-cost, conventional (nonorganic) hops were permitted in the processing of organic beer. In addition, many breweries and wholesalers were locked into contracts with conventional hop growers. As a result, after the filing of the petition and getting the issue on the agenda of the NOSB, organic hop growers descended on the 2010 NOSB meeting, testifying to the fact that they could fill the demand for organic hops and challenging their “not commercially available†status.
The process of continuous improvement worked as intended. Listening to the facts, the NOSB passed a recommendation to remove hops grown with chemical-intensive practices from the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances by adopting language that, by January 1, 2013, removed hops from 7 CFR § 205.606 (Nonorganically produced agricultural products allowed as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as “organicâ€) under OFPA. This gave the breweries time to transition organic labeled beer to organically grown hops without breaking existing production contracts.
In 2012, two years after Beyond Pesticides (as an NOSB board member at the time), growers, and advocates across the nation came together to speak out against chemical-intensive hops in “organic†beer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in a new rule that hops must be grown in compliance with the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances in order for beer products to meet USDA organic certification standards. (See Daily News here and here.) Â
Cracking Open the Organic Beer Sector
Patagonia Provisions, the food brand branch of Patagonia, speaks to some of the underlying barriers to widespread expansion of organic beer markets. “The key factors that have disincentivized breweries from producing organic beer include cost, supply, quality of ingredients, accessibility and distribution, competitive pricing and brand recognition. For example, commercial nonorganic grains can be up to six percent cheaper than organic grains. . .. Any costs or losses need to be covered by the brewery, forcing them to raise prices, which may discourage customers with less disposable income from purchasing the beer,†said Ruvani de Silva, a freelance writer who worked with Patagonia Provisions and conducted market analysis of price and flavor profiles. “Until recently, certain beer ingredients, particularly organic hops, were also considered inferior products whose flavors weren’t up to the standard of traditional varieties. And the question of loyalty also comes into play. A beer brewed with organic ingredients may taste different from the beers a brewery may be known for, and they may not want to risk alienating their core market who come for the same flavor experience every time.†See the full analysis, Shifting the Beer Industry, Organically.
Growing consumer interest in organic beer is reflected in the growth of breweries sourcing least-toxic ingredients. In a recent article published in The Philadelphia Tribune, a growing list of craft breweries are switching to fonio, an ancient grain originally from West and sub-Saharan Africa, as a main ingredient substitute and/or supplement to barley and wheat for their beer. Pierre Tham, a Senegalese chef who inspired Brooklyn Brewery to incorporate beers with a blend of fonio and malted barley, believes that fonio “could have a transformative impact on economic growth and sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa.†Fonio is significant for its importance within various African cultures, but also for the fact that it does not require toxic pesticides or fertilizers for a productive harvest, due to its growth for thousands of years without toxic synthetic inputs. See Food Revolution for a deep dive into the legacy of the supergrain here. Brooklyn Brewery approached other breweries, including Thornbridge Brewery, Omnipollo, Carlsberg, Jing-A Brewing, Guinness, Russian River Brewing, and others to develop a “coordinated fonio beer push†to create a competitive market for beer that relies on ingredients that can easily be grown with organic principles and practices.
Research on Pesticide Residues in Beer
There is a distinction between organic and nonorganic certified beer products. Glyphosate residues have been found in dozens of popular beer brands in the United States and Germany based on research from U.S. Public Interest Research Group (2019) and Munich Environmental Institute (2016). In a study published in Toxicology Reports in 2023, researchers conducted a comparative analysis of mycotoxin and pesticide levels in both craft and mainstream beer brands in Spain. “Only one sample was free from residues. This was a craft beer with organic certification, which was the only certified organic sample in the survey.†The 2023 study found that craft beers generally contained higher levels of toxic pesticides, while the 2019 U.S. PIRG study found the beer samples had just slightly lower average levels of residues than wine tested, the highest being Tsingtao beer with 49 parts per billion (ppb). Miller Lite, Corona, and Budweiser ranged from 25-30 ppb. Samuel Smith’s Organic Lager had a 5.7 ppb glyphosate concentration, and Peak Beer Organic IPA was the only sample with no detectable level of glyphosate. Given its status as a possible carcinogen, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and its association with potential adverse effects to the gut microbiome, establishing “safe†levels for exposure to glyphosate has been called into question, especially given its widespread contamination of the environment and food commodities.
In a first-of-its-kind study published earlier this year in Environmental Pollution, researchers determined a methodological approach to calculate multiple pesticide residues and their cumulative body burden. All participants contained pesticide residues, with findings of more than 10 pesticides in the bodies of more than 80 percent of study subjects. The most common pesticides include boscalid, triazoles, and simazine, among other toxic pesticides with documented adverse health impacts, including impacts on central nervous system development, triggering oxidative stress, and acting as an endocrine disrupter, respectively. Despite increasing documented cases of multiple exposures, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to take “a siloed approach†to the cumulative and disproportionate impacts of multiple chemical exposures, according to a 2023 Office of the Inspector General report. See Daily News here for an in-depth analysis.
As of 2021, there are 40 organic hops farms in the United States valued at $20.3 million, based on data gathered from USDA. Advocates across the nation are interested in enjoying food, including an ice-cold beer, without fear of pesticide exposure and their associated adverse, long-term health effects. Stay abreast of key issues that affect health, biodiversity, and climate with Beyond Pesticides’ Keeping Organic Strong webpage. See Eating with a Conscience to learn about the potential impacts on the ecosystems and farmworkers where various types of produce are grown with petrochemical pesticides. For more information on the pesticides to which we are daily exposed, see Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management and Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database. See also Why Organic to learn more about the biodiversity, environmental justice, and public health implications of choosing certified organic products.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.Â
Sources: The Philadelphia Tribune, Toxicology Reports, Patagonia Provisions
