Terra Dolce Organic Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
Substrate from China, grown in the US
So CERES filed a complaint based on the research I did - that a company from China is falsely claiming to sell organic - a company they decertified after 2009 - the company WAS certified but then the certification ran out and they do use illegal pesticides on other products.
Other "organic" shiitake from China have been tested using illegal pesticides... as per the FDA RED ban list....
And so the above is the second west coast US company that is selling Shiitake "from China" - but grown here in the US. So they could get it USDA Organic certified. But who knows what was in that substrate? Who knows how it was prepared in China?
Another company just claims their China originated Shiitake substrate is "all natural."
I found a third company that claims they "know" the "small farm" family in China that they buy their Shiitake mushrooms from and that they are "log grown" - on OAK - no less. Of course they don't give the NAME of this Chinese small family oak log farm... haha. I find that claim very hard to believe.
Why not just grow your OWN log grown instead of importing it from China? No... the fact is that the US is being swamped by cheap China substrate grown shiitake and so US companies are desperate to try to market the stuff as NOT cheap substrate grown. haha.
So sure someone can say their shrooms are grown by tiny elves working in the forest in China but unless they give some details like transparency of name - and photos - then we have all the reason to believe otherwise considering the proven lies of the Shiitake "organic" claims from China.
Log grown Shiitake are well known to be a different product than indoor sterile substrate grown. In the Substrate business - if there is a Trichoderma outbreak - and there often is - then the mold is combated with pesticides but there's no BARK to the substrate.
The tree bark is what protects the Shiitake that has been drilled into the tree. And tree bark does an excellent job.
https://www.saferbrand.com/store/outdoor-insect/insect-killing-soap
This soap is organic approved.
So yes organic farmers do use pesticides if they need it - but they're not ILLEGAL toxic synthetic pesticides banned in the US - on the contrary - they're mild pesticides.
This mineral oil concentrate eliminates insects by blocking their breathing openings while also killing off many plant diseases.
OMRI Listed®
So OMRI means it can be used for organic certified production.
Here is a list of a few OMRI Approved Oils. (Some may state restrictions for Certified Organic growers):
- Monterey Horticultural Oil (previously called SAF-T-SIDE): 80% mineral oil (92% unsulfonated residue of mineral oil) for control of fungal diseases, insects and mites. For year round usage-dormant and growing season. Use on most crops, including fruit and nut trees, vegetables, berries, ornamentals, grasses. Controls powdery mildew, mites, scale, botrytis, leafminers and more.
So I'm not organic certified obviously. I had very bad Trichoderma mold several times this summer - since I put my new logs on the ground - something I'll never do again. The Trichoderma LOVES Alder logs. So I used a mineral oil based orange soap - and it worked. I scrubbed the bark with that soap - and once it got cooler out then the Trichoderma did not return and the Shiitake started growing again. I soaked the logs once I saw the Trichoderma did not return. The bark protected the Shiitake.
So this is also OMRI - so I used an orange soap - so the orange is a solvent....
The Trichoderma actually causes the Shiitake to produce anti-bacterial compounds - or anti-fungal - and this is documented in the science as I cited before. So growing Shiitake in the wild makes for a more intense flavor because you get more Lentinan from the logs - better nutrition - and you get more Vitamin D - and more nutrients - and much better medicinal compounds.
So stores think that an "organic" mushroom is better without realizing that this "organic" was grown on substrate of dubious quality - we know that the Chinese substrate is mainly cotton seed hulls. We know that cotton as an industry is notorious for strong toxic substance use. So we can be sure that those cotton seed hulls have toxic synthetic substance residue as well.
25–30% of total pesticides produced in China is used for cotton (Wu and Guo,
So much for "organic" Shiitake Substrate from China.
https://organic.ams.usda.gov/integrity/
CERES informs me that the "mycological" company is listed... as organic.
So I respond:
Thanks for your help. I'm just using logic here. We know that 20 to 30% of toxic chemical use in China is used on cotton. We know that China substrate for Shiitake is mainly cotton seed hulls. Therefore the China substrate is not organic. I was just wondering if you actually went to China. These many "biotech" companies claiming to sell organic and then getting caught not being organic - why would an organic company be called a "biotech" company? haha. Anyway one company here claims to buy from a small family "log grown" Shiitake farm in China. But they give no name for this log-grown farm in China. It's all very dubious. All the best, drew
- When we certify products from China (or other countries in the world), we do send inspectors to the operation. We have 10 Chinese inspectors, who are regularly trained and monitored by us.
- Sampling and residue testing is only one out of many tools we use for compliance assessment.
- The definition of "organic" is not "residue free". Please go to
https://www.ams.usda.gov/
about-ams/programs-offices/ national-organic-program for finding out what "organic" is about. - The rules for mushroom production in the US National Organic Program (as opposed to the EU Organic Regulation) are rather vague. It is not really clear, if the substrate must be organic, or it must just comply with the requirements for "crops" (plants) - for which plant residues and manure can be used as fertilizers, which do not come from an organic farm. Our understanding is that the substrate for mushrooms must be organic - but not all certifiers share this interpretation.
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