What has been happening for several years now to pave the way for WalMart toMy impression is that standards are much stricter than they used to be. It's easy to find the evidence of that. Peaceful Valley, a major supplier of organic growers, totally dropped things like manganese dioxide (a natural mineral) and chelated iron (like people take in pill form) several years ago when the new organic standards came about. I can't find any example of chemical nitrate in their catalog.
mass market cheap organic produce is a gradual weakening or the definition of 'organic', not that the USDA definition isn't weak enough already.
Back in the unshaven hippie days of organic food a pile of manure was a good sign and chemical nitrates were completely verboden! Now the manure pile does not qualify as organic unless it is turned and mixed in a very certain unproductive way which is out of the reach of small producers. Yet chemical nitrate is permitted since you COULD be using imported and expensive bat guano; but chemical nitrate produced from fossil fuel is CHEMICALLY the same thing so it's OK to use it (up to 20% of total nitrogen).
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