'Organic' outcry heeded as Feds withdraw changes

The Bush administration abruptly reversed itself Wednesday and withdrew four changes in organic food standards that critics had said threatened to undermine public trust in the word "organic."

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced that "we are taking action to rescind" the four changes made to organic food regulations by National Organic Program administrators in April and reported in The Chronicle on Saturday.

Those changes, which the department called clarifications, had expanded the use of antibiotics in organic dairy cows and pesticides in crops, allowed livestock to eat nonorganic fishmeal and deregulated "organic" seafood, cosmetics and pet food.

The reversal was in response to a broad wave of outrage from organic farmers, the $11 billion organic food industry, its advocates and Republican and Democratic supporters in Congress. They objected both to the changes and to the fact that National Organic Program administrators made them in private without consulting their own advisory board or organic producers.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/27/MNGBT6SHM71.DTL

we actually "won" one for a change!

I feed my family mostly organic food. I particulary care about my baby and my husband alergy.

I can trust the standard for time being.

Thank you.

Hertopos

As a vegan, I feel safe for right now. But this is only the first step in combatting the move further into a GM-based society. The worst thing about the undermining of organic standards is that the foods that you would be buying would actually have government subsidized GMOs even when say organic.

All in all, I believe that by funding non-organic food from our tax dollars, it undermines consumer freedom.

They count on it flying under the radar, but luckily there is now enough awareness out there to keep it from happening. Kudos!