USDA organic, 100% farmer-free.

• Author: Halweil, Brian
• Position: US Dept of Agriculture's proposed organic farming standards - Editorial

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed national organic farming standards with "loopholes big enough to drive a chemical fertilizer truck through," says Steve Gilman of the Northeast Organic Farmers Association. By failing to incorporate the recommendations of the organic farming community, the USDA standards undermine what consumers have come to expect from the organic label - chemical-free food production that enhances, rather than degrades, the environment. As the organic industry grows beyond the face-to-face commerce of farmers' markets and community-supported agriculture - where mutual trust typically supersedes regulation - the continued input and oversight of the organic-farming community is the only way to keep the term "organic" grounded in its ethical traditions.

The proposed standards leave the door open to the use of genetically modified organisms, sewage sludge, confined-livestock operations, food irradiation, and other substances and practices that have never been considered organic. Various exemptions in the USDA standards would enable a conventional farm, with minor changes in its practices, to qualify as "organic." In conjunction with world trade agreements that drive agricultural regulation to the lowest common denominator, these standards - proposed by a nation with considerable negotiating muscle - threaten to supplant stricter international organic rules.

The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 was supposed to provide those who first gave life to this movement with a prominent voice in the development of national standards by creating a National Organic Standards Board. Composed of organic farmers, environmentalists, and consumer advocates, the board has served to determine the substances and practices that qualify as organic and to shield the burgeoning organic industry from the meddling of special...