In France, The Departmental Department of Population Protection routinely visits markets, restaurants and supermarkets of the Côte d'Azur to conduct "surprise" checks. They also visit organic farmers to check the organic certificates of sellers.
A recent analysis finds something surprising; 30 percent of food sold as organic is fraudulent but without government checking no customers would ever know the difference.
Organic farming is booming in the Alpes-Maritimes. They list 234 organic farms and 3,976 hectares of organic land and the requirements should be simple. They can:
- Use any chemicals that have been given an organic waiver
- Use genetic modification as long as it is Mutagenesis or a biotechnology before the introduction of GMOs.
In return, markets say they will pay more. Michel Unzueta, owner of "Atipic Marché" in Nice converted to 100% organic three years ago, and saus "When I have a peasant who offers me zucchini and who announces a price I will not take away thirty or fifty cents."