What's
Behind the Organic Label?
Since organic farming does not allow the
use of GE ingredients in organic foods; GE
crops being fed to organic livestock, or the
use of the GE
growth hormone rBGH, organics are the best
way to avoid GE foods and support a
sustainable alternative to industrial GE
agriculture. But what do the USDA Organic
labels actually mean? Here is an
explanation from the USDA:
The sample cereal boxes show the four
labeling categories. From left:
cereal with 100 percent organic ingredients;
cereal with 95-100 percent organic
ingredients; cereal made with at least 70
percent organic ingredients; and cereal with
less than 70 percent organic ingredients.
Products with less than 70 percent organic
ingredients may list specific organically
produced ingredients on the side panel of the
package, but may not make any organic claims
on the front of the package. Look for
the name and address of the
Government-approved certifier on all packaged
products that contain at least 70 percent
organic ingredients.
Protecting Organic
Standards
An
historic struggle is currently raging in this
country over the future of food in the 21st
century. A grassroots movement for
organic, ecological and humane food is now
challenging the decades-long dominance of
"industrial" corporate-controlled
agribusiness. While industrial agriculture
still dominates our crop fields and
supermarkets, organic agriculture is now
expanding faster than any other sector in U.S.
food production. It is now a $9 billion
industry growing at 20 percent per year.
Moreover, thousands of farmers and producers
are even pushing beyond organic to establish
food production systems that are locally
based, humane, and socially just and that
encourage biodiversity.
Despite
organic agriculture's positive growth, it has
reached a critical juncture in its struggle
for a more sustainable food future. On
October 21, 2002, national organic standards
became law. While these standards are worthy
of celebration, they are not the final word in
the protection and promotion of organic food
systems.
Unfortunately,
the future of organic food is in the hands of
an Administration and a regulatory agency--the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)--that
are backed by powerful agribusiness interests,
all of which are openly hostile to the organic
and beyond alternative. In less than a year
from passage, the Bush administration sought
to seriously undermine the national organic
standards in a number of significant ways,
including creating numerous potential
loopholes that would allow placing
unacceptable chemical materials on a list of
substances approved for organic use; a number
of unapproved additives to be used in
processing organic foods; eliminating outdoor
access requirements for poultry; eliminating
the requirement that livestock feed be 100
percent organic; and forcing small-scale,
farmer-based organic certifiers out of the
program. If
the Bush administration's current policies are
continued, the integrity of all organic food
could be fatally compromised, and this crucial
alternative to industrial agriculture would be
lost.
CFS
seeks to maintain
strong organic standards that live up to the
quality and integrity that consumers expect
from organic foods while evolving the ethic by
promoting agriculture that is local,
small-scale and family operated, biologically
diverse, humane, and socially just. The
ultimate goal of the Organic & Beyond
campaign is to replace the industrial
agriculture model with a new vision of farming
with the natural world.
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