Star Bamboo Singapore

I came across bamboo kitchen utensils that are “made from 100% organically grown bamboo”. That got me intrigued because I’ve not heard such a claim before.

I’m not doubting the authenticity of this manufacturer, but it got me thinking: Can bamboo be certified organic?

Well, what does it mean to be organic?

According to Wikipedia, to be certified “organic” involves a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:

• avoidance of synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc) and genetically modified organisms;
• use of farmland that has been free from chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);
• keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
• maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
• undergoing periodic on-site inspections.

The vast majority of bamboo products originate from China and they are not organic – there’s too much paper work to be done. At the most, we could call it “free of fertilizers and chemicals”.

Which is not such a big deal now because many bamboo forests currently don’t require chemicals.

But as increasing demand puts pressure on the supply, more and more companies may be tempted to resort to artificial means of speeding up the growth even more.