Label loophole: when organic isn't.

• Author: Schmelzer, Paul
• Position: Organic foods labeling

For decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the agribusiness industry have all but ignored the organic community. The industry quietly carved out a sizable market niche, growing in sales from $178 million in 1980 to more than $4.2 billion today. After establishing their own private certification systems, organic farmers sought to further protect the term "organic" and petitioned Congress for a national standard. The result was the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which called for the development of a national standard for certified organic produce. Now the USDA has proposed such a standard, but it is not doing What the organic community intended.

At the December 15, 1997, press conference announcing the new rule, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said, "The rules are going to clear up the confusion that sometimes exists ... about what is and what is not organic."

Yet the 600-page proposal seriously muddies that question. "They have no interest in providing our organic community with a historically significant and correct rule," says Edward Brown, produce manager at Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis. "Instead, they undermine the rule and erase the lines that divide conventional and organic agriculture. We didn't realize the USDA language would benefit corporate agriculture and give them a beachhead into the organic movement."

The new rule "would be a boon for the conventional agribusiness food system which has, for years, sought to eliminate any differentiation in the marketplace that threatens their market share," Fred Kirschenmann, an organic farmer and National Organic Standards Board member,' writes in Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly. "One could hardly imagine a single piece of regulation that could bring more joy and comfort to the agribusiness food industry."

Mike Hankin, senior marketing specialist of the USDA's National Organic Program, sees things differently. "It's a matter of trust," he says. "If you're suspicious of us, no matter what we write or say, you'll look at it with a critical eye. You've got to trust that we're writing the highest possible standard."

The new standard could allow food that is genetically engineered, zapped with ionizing radiation, or fertilized with municipal sewer sludge to carry the label "organic." These are the three most obvious problems with the new standard, according to Organic Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C. Already, 30,000 citizens have objected to the...