Bush Junta Allows Antibiotics and Pesticides in “Organic” Foods



AlterNet.org



In
their latest why-are-you-messing-with-my-life outrage, the Bush junta
'reinterprets' the organic label to include antibiotics and pesticides
without consulting the National Organic Standards Board or the public.



The Bush
administration is giving Americans new reason to watch what they eat —
and it has nothing to do with carbs. Over the course of 10 days in
mid-April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued three “guidances”
and one directive — all legally binding interpretations of law — that
threaten to seriously dilute the meaning of the word “organic” and
discredit the department's National Organic Program.



The
changes — which would allow the use of antibiotics on organic dairy
cows, synthetic pesticides on organic farms, and more — were made with
zero input from the public or the National Organic Standards Board, the
advisory group that worked for more than a decade to help craft the
first federal organic standards, put in place in October 2002.



The USDA
insists that the changes are innocuous: “The directives have not
changed anything. They are just clarifications of what is in the
regulations that were written by the National Organic Standards Board,”
USDA spokesperson Joan Shaffer told Muckraker. “They just explain
what's enforceable. There is no difference [between the clarifications
and the original regulations] — it's just another way of explaining
it.”



But Jim
Riddle, vice chair of the NOSB and endowed chair in agricultural
systems at the University of Minnesota, argues that what the USDA is
trying to pass off as a clarification of regulations is actually a
substantial change: “These are the sorts of changes for which the
department is supposed to do a formal new rulemaking process, with
posting in the federal register, feedback from our advisory board, and
a public-comment period. And yet there is no such process denoted
anywhere.”



Organic
activists suspect that industry pressure drove the policy shifts. They
point out that the USDA leadership has long-standing industry
sympathies: Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman served on the board of
directors of a biotech company, and both her chief of staff and her
director of communications were plucked right out of National
Cattlemen's Beef Association.



“Even
though it evolved as a reaction against large-scale American
agribusinesses, the organic food industry has seen tremendous growth,
roughly 20 to 24 percent a year for the past 10 years,” said Ronnie
Cummins, founder and national director of the Organic Consumers
Association. “That, not surprisingly, has brought with it investments
from big business and demands for conventional farming practices more
favorable to mass production.”



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