The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

ALERT (US): America's Organic Standards Under Attack

http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm

USDA'S NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM (NOP) HAS ANNOUNCED CONTROVERSIAL NEW DIRECTOVES ON NATIONAL ORGANIC STANDARDS.

Over the past few weeks America's organic standards have once again come under heavy attack. First the USDA's NOP announced on April 14 that they would no longer monitor or police "organic" labels on non-agricultural products, literally opening the door for unscrupulous companies to put bogus organic labels on products such as fish, body care products, pet foods, fertilizer, and clothing.

In addition, the USDA will now permit pesticides on crops, artificial growth hormones to be injected into cows, and mercury and PCB's in fishmeal fed to cattle.

PESTICIDES
The USDA has now stated that as long as the farmer and the organic certifier don't know the specific ingredients of the pesticides applied to the "organic" plants, the crops can be sold as "organic". To make matters worse, it is not required by law for pesticide companies to list the ingredients on their products (it's considered proprietary information), so the farmers rarely know what the specific ingredients are.

ARTIFICIAL GROWTH HORMONE
The USDA has announced that individual cows can be treated with any kind of drug at any time, including synthetic growth hormones, but milk can only be sold from that cow 12 months after that treatment. The problem with this directive is that it opens up the door for split operation factory style dairy farms, whereby organic and non-organic dairy operations are carried out simultaneously, and hundreds if not thousands of "organic" dairy cows are kept in intensive confinement. Not only are industrial sized dairy farms bad for the environment, but they inevitably give rise to sick cows who have to be treated with drugs. Of course many of these drugs build up in the body fat and are released in the milk and meat from these animals. If this new directive is allowed to stand, organic milk could potentially contain residues of drugs and hormones.

MERCURY AND PCB'S IN FEED FED TO CATTLE
The USDA also stated on April 28 that non-organic fishmeal can be fed to cattle, and the beef can still be sold as "organic". Fishmeal is used as a protein supplement on conventional cattle ranches, but it frequently contains mercury, PCBs and other synthetic chemicals. Mercury and PCBs are "bioacculmulators" meaning they are concentrated and stored in the "meat" of the animal.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm
Click above to go to the Organic Consumers Association to send a letter to Secretary Anne Veneman, voicing your concerns over the degradation of our organic standards. These changes were made without any public comment period, so now is the time to voice your concerns!


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For more Sustainable Agriculture action alerts, go to: http://www.gracepublicfund.org/farming/