This is the final article in a six-part series focused on helping consumers choose products that align with their values.\

Of all the eco-labels, “organic” has arguably generated the most interest. It is also one of the clearest and most consistent certification systems because the USDA regulates it. The USDA established organic standards after an often-contentious public process with input from all stakeholders.

Americans spent a record $76.6 billion on certified organic products in 2025. That’s a 6.8% jump over the previous year and double the growth rate of the conventional marketplace, according to the Organic Trade Association’s 2026 Organic Market Report. Organic food alone accounted for $70.1 billion, reaching 6.1% of the total U.S. food market.

That growth marks a striking reversal. When this article first appeared in 2019, consumer surveys ranked “organic” near the bottom of the product claims shoppers cared about, and news reports questioned whether the label was meaningfully enforced. By this year, the Organic Trade Association’s consumer research found the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Organic seal enjoys the highest level of consumer trust of any food certification; and the rules behind the seal have been substantially strengthened.

Here’s what the organic label guarantees now, where it still falls short, and which certifications go further.

USDA Regulation: One Label, Legally Defined

For many eco-issues, like cruelty-free claims, numerous third-party and industry-led organizations compete for your attention with overlapping labels. In contrast, the federal government legally defines and regulates the term “organic.”

The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 established the framework for organic certification, which covers produce and livestock practices from soil management to animal living conditions. The USDA organic standards reflect the general consensus on the most environmentally friendly agricultural practices that remain practical for commercial farming. To achieve certification, farms must demonstrate that they protect natural resources, conserve biodiversity, and use only approved substances. Products containing GMOs cannot be certified organic.

Four Labels, Four Different Guarantees

Even within the organic standards, there are four labeling categories — and they promise different things:

• 100% Organic: Most people assume “organic” means “entirely organic.” It doesn’t. If you want products made exclusively with organic ingredients, look for the “100% Organic” label.
• Organic: Products labeled simply “organic” must contain at least 95% organic ingredients. This category exists for situations where an organic ingredient isn’t available in sufficient quantity.
• Made with organic ingredients: Products bearing this claim must contain at least 70% organic ingredients, and they cannot display the USDA Organic seal.
• Specific organic ingredients: Products with less than 70% organic content may only identify individual organic ingredients in the ingredient list.

Enforcement Got Real in 2024

Concerns about fraud, particularly in imported grain shipments documented by a damning 2017 audit, once gave shoppers legitimate reason to doubt the seal. The USDA’s answer was the Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule, the largest overhaul of organic regulation since the 1990 law itself. It took effect in March 2024.

Under the new rule, nearly everyone who touches an organic product, including the brokers, traders, and importers who previously operated without oversight, must now be certified. Every organic import requires an electronic import certificate. Certifiers must conduct unannounced inspections of at least 5% of the operations they certify, and every certified operation must maintain a written organic fraud prevention plan. Violations can bring civil penalties exceeding $20,000 per occurrence.

The resources behind enforcement have grown, too. The National Organic Program’s budget more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, from about $9 million to more than $22 million annually, and its staff roughly doubled over five years. The agency reports it is actively intercepting fraudulent imports and prosecuting offenders.

Enforcement will never be perfect, but the loopholes that fueled skepticism in the late 2010s have largely been closed.

Beyond Organic: Certifications That Go Further

For more than 30 years, USDA Organic has dominated the sustainability certification market. But the standard still permits practices, such as hydroponic production and large confined livestock operations, that many organic pioneers consider contrary to the movement’s founding principles, and it says nothing about farmworker welfare. Several certifications address those gaps:

• Real Organic Project: Founded in 2018 by farmers frustrated with the USDA’s decisions to allow hydroponically grown produce and confinement dairies under the organic seal, this add-on label certifies only farms that already hold USDA Organic certification. It verifies that crops are grown in soil and livestock are raised on pasture. Certification is free to farmers, funded by donors, and more than 1,100 farms have joined.
• Regenerative Organic Certified: Created by the Rodale Institute, Patagonia, and Dr. Bronner’s, ROC uses USDA Organic as its baseline and adds requirements across three pillars: soil health, animal welfare, and fairness for farmers and workers. Farms certify at bronze, silver, or gold levels. Since certification began in 2020, ROC has become the leading regenerative standard, with 438 farms and more than 67,000 smallholders managing nearly 20 million acres worldwide.
• Certified Naturally Grown: CNG standards closely track USDA Organic, but enforcement works through peer review by fellow farmers rather than accredited certifiers, making certification more affordable for small direct-market farms. Look for it at farmers markets and CSAs.
• Food Alliance Certified: This nonprofit certifier, working since 1997, takes a risk-management approach rather than drawing organic’s natural-versus-synthetic line. Farmers must prevent pest problems first, but may respond to outbreaks with the minimum sufficient use of chemicals. The standard also covers working conditions, animal welfare, and wildlife habitat.
• Demeter Certified Biodynamic: A holistic farming philosophy based on the work of Rudolf Steiner, biodynamic farming treats the whole farm as a self-sustaining organism, requiring USDA Organic compliance as a base plus stricter rules on imported fertility, biodiversity set-asides, and water conservation. Demeter, founded in 1928, is the oldest ecological certification in the world, with more than 7,000 farmers in 63 countries.

These certifications set a higher bar for sustainability, but their products remain far less widely available than USDA Organic.

Organic seals don’t capture everything that matters, but they now certify, with meaningfully stronger enforcement than a few years ago, that producers did not use toxic synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. For shoppers trying to buy in line with their values, this is a verified baseline the many unregulated “natural” and “non-toxic” claims cannot match.

What You Can Do

• Match the label to your priority. If avoiding synthetic pesticides is your main goal, USDA Organic delivers. If soil health, animal welfare, or farmworker fairness matters most, look for Real Organic Project or Regenerative Organic Certified as add-ons to the organic seal.
• Read the percentage. “Organic” means 95%; only “100% Organic” means everything in the package is organic.
• Shop locally when you can. Buying directly from farmers — certified or peer-reviewed through Certified Naturally Grown — lets you ask about practices the labels don’t cover.
• Be skeptical of “natural.” Unlike “organic,” the term has no legal definition on most products and no inspection behind it.

Read part one: Shopping Your Environmental and Social Values.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on July 30, 2019 by Gemma Alexander. It was extensively updated in July 2026.

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