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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Bush Administration moving to allow corporate takeover of organics
  • Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 08:40:55 -0600

Bush Administration moving to allow corporate takeover of organics
http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm#action

Over the past few weeks America's organic standards have once again come
under heavy attack. First the USDA's National Organic Program (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 the case of seafood and body care products, the marketplace is already
starting to become flooded with products bearing the organic label, even
though the production methods (industrial fish farms) or content ("organic"
shampoos with organic claims based upon added water) in many of these
products violate traditional organic principles. Besides giving the green
light to bogus organic labels the new USDA "scope policy" penalizes genuine
organic companies that have begun sourcing, certifying, and labeling their
products as organic.

Corporate agribusiness and the biotech lobby have apparently decided that
strict organic farming practices and the booming organic market constitute a
threat to their bottom line, and have called on their friends in the Bush
administration USDA to degrade organic standards and prepare for a
restructuring of organic production so as to facilitate the use of industrial
agriculture practices such as pesticides, antibiotics, non-organic feed,
growth hormones and even genetically engineered animal drugs.
(For more info on corporate agribusiness control of U.S. government, click
here)

USDA's NOP announced on April 28 controversial new directives/guidance
statements on national organic standards including:

"Organic" Crops Raised with 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.
(Read full USDA pesticide statement here)
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Compliance/PesticidesCompliance.pdf


"Organic" Dairy Cows Injected with Antibiotics and Synthetic Hormones?
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.
(Read full USDA dairy statement here)
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/GuidanceStatements/AntibioticGuidance041304.pdf


Mercury and PCBs Allowed in "Organic" Beef?
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.
(Read full USDA livestock feed statement here)
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/GuidanceStatements/FishmealGuidance041304.pdf






  • [Livingontheland] Bush Administration moving to allow corporate takeover of organics, Tradingpost, 05/07/2004

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