Notes Adapted from The Organic Center's comments to WSDOH
(see full comment letter by Chuck Benbrook)
Why Organic Food Belongs in the WIC Program
- The widely-acclaimed 1993 NAS report, Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children,” explained that infants and children face unique risks when exposed to certain pesticides, especially during critical windows of development. The report also concluded that pesticide regulatory policy had to change in order to assure that these most vulnerable segments of the population are adequately protected.
- Many new mothers understand that even very-low levels of pesticide exposure during pregnancy and the first months of their child's life can have adverse lifelong consequences. While most WIC mothers do not know which foods or pesticides pose the greatest risk, or why, their desire to avoid exposures for themselves and their families is easy to understand, as is their interest in purchasing organic food through the WIC program.
Benefits Linked to Organic Dairy Products
- Milk is the most important single food in the diets of most infants and children. Numerous studies have shown consistently and conclusively that cows consuming 30% or more of their daily dry matter intake from pasture produce milk that is higher in protein and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a heart-healthy fat that plays important roles in development.
- A recent study published in the biomedical literature found that mothers with a high proportion (> 90%) of dairy intake from an organic origin have higher levels of rumenic acid in their breast milk. Rumenic acid is responsible for most of the health benefits of CLA from pasture-produced milk.
- Another recent study in the British Journal of Nutrition reported that consumption of organic dairy products was associated with lower risk of eczema in the first two years of life (Kummeling et al., Consumption of organic foods and risk of atopic disease during the first 2 years of life in the Netherlands," British Journal of Nutrition, 2007).
- Organic dairy farmers are required by NOP regulations to provide access to pasture for their cows during the months of the year when weather supports pasture growth. Agricultural Resources Management (ARMS) survey data collected by the USDA in 2005 shows unequivocally that pasture and grass forages make up a significant share of the diet of most cows on organic farms during most of the year, compared to a much smaller portion on most conventional dairy farms.
- For these reasons, mothers are on solid ground in expecting over time a nutritional premium from the routine purchase of organic milk and dairy products.
The Organic Price Premium
- Given the goals of the WIC program and the reality that WIC funds are limited relative to need for the program, efforts have been made to seek out and approve those staple foods that deliver the most calories per dollar spent. The generally higher cost per serving of most of organic food will limit the quantity of a given food that a mother can purchase with a fixed WIC allotment.
- Despite uncertainty about the magnitude of the benefits (versus higher price) of organic food, some mothers have decided that organic food is a worthwhile investment in their children's well-being. The conscious choice to seek out organic food, even when it costs more, reflects a commitment by mothers to provide their children with the highest quality food possible and the safest path through the critical early years of development.
- Given the breadth of evidence in support of a range of benefits from consumption of organic food, the Washington State Department of Health [WSDOH] would need compelling reasons to prohibit mothers from purchasing organic foods through the WIC program. In particular, they would need to explain why mothers should not be free to choose a somewhat smaller quantity of what they regard as higher-quality food.
