From Common Dreams:
Another Sneak Attack on Organic Standards: USDA to Allow More Conventional Ingredients in Organics
WASHINGTON - MAY 17 -The USDA has announced a controversial proposal, with absolutely no input from consumers, to allow 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the "USDA Organic" seal. Most of the ingredients are food colorings derived from plants that are supposedly not "commercially available" in organic form. But at least three of the proposed ingredients, apparently backed by beer companies, including Anheuser-Busch, and pork and food processors, represent a serious threat to organic standards, and have raised the concerns of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), as well as a number of smaller organic companies and organic certifiers.
After the jump are the comments from UEPI's Center for Food & Justice that we are submitting today.
May 22, 2007
To Whom It May Concern:
We at the Center for Food & Justice, a division of the Urban
& Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College
The Center for Food & Justice has a mission of a more
just and sustainable food system. We
engage in community-based organizing and program implementation to educate
consumers about food issues, and we work to support local and sustainable food
growers and producers. The organic label offers consumers the opportunity to
purchase foods that are truly and authentically produced and processed in agro-ecologically
sound ways and free of substances with unknown health effects. If the legislation proposed by the USDA and
other governmental agencies is adopted, the integrity and benefits associated
with organic will have been severely diminished.
The proposal to allow, for example, casings from non-organic
beef and non-organic fish oil in products labeled “organic” is incompatible
with the spirit of organic production and ultimately will further dilute the standards
that have made organic agriculture a trusted certification among growers,
producers, and consumers alike. Efforts
such as these to dilute organic standards will erode consumer confidence and lead
to even more highly processed and ecologically detrimental food raising
practices, further diminishing the ecological, economic, and social
sustainability of our food system.
For the sake of American consumers and food producers, we
urge you to reject docket No. AMS-TM-07-0062 and its proposed changes to the
organic certification laws.
The Center for Food &
Justice
Urban &
Environmental Policy Institute
Comments