I write a post about how much I enjoy organic foods, and then I find out that the party I belong to is trying to destroy that, too. Why? Corporate greed:
Congress voted yesterday to weaken the nation’s organic food standards in response to pressure from large-scale food manufacturers.
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) and food processors have been pressing Congress to change the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) to allow for the use of numerous synthetic substances in products labeled “organic” and to weaken organic dairy standards.
A recent court decision ruled that the OFPA does not allow synthetic (non-natural) ingredients to be used in foods labeled “organic” and that the act must ensure a strong standard under which dairy cows are converted to organic milk production. After rejecting efforts by members of the public interest and environmental community to reach an agreement on these issues, major food processors in the organic food industry, including Smucker’s, Dean Foods, and Kraft, pushed Congress to “quietly” change the law to allow the use of such synthetic ingredients and potentially weaken the organic dairy standards.
“Congress voted last night to weaken the national organic standards that consumers count on to preserve the integrity of the organic label,” said Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association.. “The process was profoundly undemocratic and the end result is a serious setback for the multi billion dollar alternative food and farming system that the organic community has so painstakingly built up over the past 35 years. The rider will take away the traditional role of the organic community and the National Organic Standards Board in monitoring and controling organic standards. Industry’s stealth attack has unnecessarily damaged the standards that helped organic foods become the fastest growing sector in the food industry.”
More here. I guess in the future, the word ‘organic’ is going to be as meaningless as the word ‘home-made’ on a food label. Or as meaningless as the words ‘honor and integrity’ are to this congress and administration.
There is no reason to change the standards other than to mollycoddle big agribusiness firms who want to continue producing food the way they do yet reap the profits of the niche organic market.
*** Update ***
And, btw, it is small businesses, the ones Republicans claim to love, who will be hurt by this. Most of the locally raised fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy around here are grown and raised by organic farmers. Ruining the organic label will destroy these businesses, which just recently have started up and started to become profitable.
Not to mention it will limit my choices as a consumer.
Stormy70
Organic?! John, if you did not drink scotch, I would wonder about you. Organic is just another word for rip-off. How many spiders have crept all over your food. Ick!
Mike S
When big business is allowed to lower the standards so that they can profit everyone is hurt. But you’re right. It’s the small business’ that get hurt the most. They’ve usually spent a great deal of money starting up and either break even or lose before the business picks up. Then once they start making money big business gets the change made and swoops in for the profits.
ppGaz
Storm, one doesn’t have to actually love/buy/eat organic in order to see that John is right here. It’s a truth thing, really.
If “organic” is just another slogan that doesn’t really have any standards, then ….. all food labeling is just advertising and meaningless. Like GOP politics, for example.
What if “Scotch” just meant “light brown” and any old crap for whiskey cold be sold under that label?
Stormy70
I am eagerly awaiting the Central Market being built less than 2 miles from my house. So, I can’t rib you too much about organic. Usually, I buy my fruits and veggies at the roadside stands. Mmmm garden fresh. The okra is awesome, and the cucumbers make you want to eat only them for a week.
John Cole
OK. Everyone stop. Two commenters in a row (including PPGAZ) have claimed I am right.
I am getting dizzy.
Jill
And you are surprised by this? This congress and Administration do nothing unless it benefits big business. Buyer’s (voter’s) remorse sucks, doesn’t it?
Stormy70
Hey guys, I think this law is stupid. I just wanted to goad John a bit.
Mike S
Both sides cater to big business. As much as I love to bash Republicans this one doesn’t fly all the way home.
Mike S
They’re trying to change it so that the age is just a guideline that’s rounded up. It can be aged for 10 years and called 12 year old.
Jill
“As much as I love to bash Republicans this one doesn’t fly all the way home.”
A dem majority congress would never have let this pass, nor the medicare prescription give-away either.
Mike S
IIRC the Dems controlled congress when the rules on Champaign was changed so that all sparkling wines can now be labeled as such. I’m sure that they were incharge of the Senate but not so sure about the house.
Jill
Us calling sparkling wine Champagne is not the same as changing rules for organics. One is a name change the other is a substance change.
Mike S
Huh? I’m sure the residents of the Champaign province in France would disagree. Unfortunately my point stands. Money makes policy, no matter who writes it.
Jill
Is it still just a name change? Is the change throughout the world or just in this country?
SLE
I have eaten mostly organic food for 20 years, but lately I have been moving away from it. The problem is the produce quality seems to be declining even as the price goes up. The big agribusinesses will just accelerate this trend.
Once it becomes a big market, lots of low-quality producers and vendors pile in, and the larger producers use market power to squeeze out the smaller ones.
Anyway, I see Congress’ (very bad) action as just affirming a trend, not initiating it.
srv
Not only will the word organic become meaningless, new regulations will make it impossible for new and legacy small producers to be compliant.
Long-term, many expect that legacy producers will have to adopt a new branding, just without the word organic in it.
Sigh.
Emma Zahn
Why not just grow your own? It’s not like you have to have a lot of land unless your are raising crops for cash. Containers or small raised beds work well for a small family.
ppGaz
Tomatoes cannot be grown here, it’s too hot in the summer.
Even if the plants can be made to thrive, you’d have to pollinate manually to get fruit, the bees take July and August off and go to the beach. Even if you pollinate, the 24-hour heat causes small fruit. Even if you can get the fruit to a decent size, the hot weather splits them open before the best picking time.
So you can work your ass off all season and get maybe a dozen decent tomaotoes. Not worth the effort.
So we just grow prickly pear and make cactus jelly.
Phillip J. Birmingham
Mmmmm, having had prickly pear wheat beer, I imagine the jelly must be fantastic.
tzs
If you want tomatoes, move to upstate New York. After making all the catsup, piccalilli and chili we could stand, we STILL had ’em running out of our ears…
..and let’s not get started on Zucchini, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice of vegetables.
(Of course, gardening a bed in New England always starts off by removing the 2 tons of rocks that have sprouted over the winter. We grow two crops there, veggies and granite.)
Krista
tzs- I definitely know where you’re coming from. We planted three zucchini plants and two magda (a summer squash) plants, and we just couldn’t keep up with the damned things. Our tomatoes went nowhere this year, though. The peas were phenomenal, though. I like them raw, right out of the pod. That is a shame about the law, though. It’s sickening how the government constantly allows big food business to mislead consumers. Most food labelling is a joke.
CaseyL
Neighborhoods co-ops might be reliable sources of “real” organic food, esp. produce, since they tend to buy from local small farmers, and their memberships are pretty vigilant about keeping them honest.
Local farmers markets, if your area has any, might also be good sources for real organic food.
Trader Joes and Whole Foods are neither small nor local, but they have SFAIK a good reputation for screening their vendors.
And Consumer Reports might be a good source for finding out which packaged food brands are truly organic.
neil
Fortunately, or less-unfortunately, at least, the federal organic label never was very useful because it allows products which are 95% organic to use the label. Or something along those lines — anyway, all I know is that there are quite few well-respected independent organic certification firms in California which are the only ones most California consumers and sellers pay any attention to.
skeeme
Some sarcastic thoughts-
Your addendum states:
“And, btw, it is small businesses, the ones Republicans claim to love, who will be hurt by this. Most of the locally raised fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy around here are grown and raised by organic farmers. Ruining the organic label will destroy these businesses, which just recently have started up and started to become profitable.”
I was looking at the OTA member list on their website:
http://www.ota.com/about/memberlist.html
yeah, a veritable ‘who’s who’ of greedy Republican food co-ops and evil neocon organic farm associations…after all, every good eco-activist knows that the benign-sounding “Earth Friendly Goods” is actually just a front for Monsanto.
not sure I believe the statement that the organic food business is new or hurting for cash, either. According to the OCA website (who oppose the new law), it is a
“multi billion dollar alternative food and farming system that the organic community has so painstakingly built up over the past 35 years”
while I agree that diluting the definition of ‘organic’ as it applies to labeling does consumers a small disservice, some who oppose this measure use dishonest scare tactics to argue their point. Calling vitamin C a ‘synthetic preservative’, or hydrogen peroxide for sterilization a non-organic processing method are some examples. Glass jars and wax-lined cardboard containers are technically ‘synthetic’. The bacteria used in yogurt is synthetically sourced, being cultured in a microbiologist’s petri dish under artificially sterile conditions- where’s the outrage?
Zach
I’m liberal and all, but isn’t this a good time for the Organic food industry to come up with its own guidelines and certification standards?
The very problem with entrusting this sort of thing to the government is that depending on who is in charge it can be perverted.