Organics News
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Jun/Jul 2004

Organics industry and consumers force USDA to rescind weakened directives

In an unexpected move, Anne Veneman, the US Secretary of Agriculture, announced on 26 May that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has decided to rescind directives it made in April that weakened organics standards and threw the organics industry into a tailspin.

First, the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP) announced on 14 April that it would no longer monitor or police "organic" labels on non-food products, opening the door for unscrupulous companies to put bogus organic labels on products such as fish, body care products, pet foods, fertiliser and clothing. Then, on 28 April, the Feds stunned everyone by announcing that pesticides, animal drugs, growth hormones, antibiotics and tainted fishmeal would be allowed on organic farms.

All of these announcements came as a shock to the organics industry and consumers. By law, these types of sweeping regulatory changes have to undergo a period of public comment before being enacted. Although the USDA never followed its legal duty to solicit public comment, once the activist community had spread the word about the weakened standards, consumers by the thousands let their voices be heard.

In response to the new directives, the US Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a national consumer watchdog group, immediately launched a campaign to pressure the USDA into reversing its controversial directives. Within two days, over 5,000 petition signatures had been gathered and a landslide of faxes, emails and phone calls hit the USDA and NOP offices.

While the OCA mobilised its over half a million supporters, organic businesses were gearing up for a lawsuit against the USDA. Dr Bronner's Magic Soaps, a leading manufacturer of organic and natural body care products, released a letter to the Organic Trade Association saying that it would pay for all legal costs associated with a lawsuit against the USDA. David Bronner, President of Dr Bronner's Magic Soaps, said: "Non-food products can support organic agriculture and processing just as much as organic food products do. Taking away the opportunity to certify non-food products under the NOP would have been an enormous disincentive to non-food industries to source from and support organic agriculture."

Secretary Veneman's announcement rescinds all four of the NOP directives and once again opens dialogue between federal agencies, consumers and the organics industry in the ongoing development of standards for organic non-food products.

The changes to America's organics standards would have given Australians cause for concern about the integrity of organic imports under the free trade agreement being negotiated with the USA. The fact that they've been ditched due to protests from the organics industry and consumers gives us all some hope for the future.

[Source: Organic Consumers Association, 26 May 2004, http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm#action.]

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", June/July 2004; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]