Don't Mess with Our Organic Label

July 1, 2004

Don't Mess with Our " Organic " Label By Jim Hightower, AlterNet

Posted on June 30, 2004, Printed on July 1, 2004

Anytime the Bushites issue a new set of administrative guidelines, while telling

We the People to pay no mind to their actions because they're merely

" clarifying " existing regulations -- grab your BS detector.

That's what consumers, farmers, environmentalists, and others did when Bush's

agriculture department suddenly issued four new guidelines on what can and

cannot be labeled as organic. Not to worry, said a USDA spokeswoman: " They are

just clarifications... They just explain what's enforceable. " BS! All four are

slick stinkers that pollute the very meaning of " organic. "

The supposedly innocuous " clarifications " -- which were pushed by agribusiness

corporations that fund Bush's political campaign -- would allow pesticides,

animal drugs, sex hormones, antibiotics, and toxic fishmeal to be used to

produce crops, meat, milk, and other foods we buy that are labeled organic.

In other words, the Bushites' would turn the organic label into a legalized

fraud. To add to the deception, the ag department tried to sneak these

agribusiness changes into law without allowing any public comment, as required

by law.

I don't know whom they thought they were fooling, but it damned sure wasn't the

People. Thousands of phone calls, emails, faxes, and petitions poured into USDA

-- so many calls, for example, that besieged ag officials called the Organic

Consumers Association and begged it to tell its supporters to stop calling!

Also, small organic businesses and the Organic Trade Association prepared a

lawsuit against this antidemocratic power play.

It took less than a month for the Bushites to cry uncle. Forced to the wall by

the public outrage, Bush's ag secretary has abruptly rescinded all four

clarifications, and for the moment, the integrity of our organic label has been

preserved.

But keep your BS detectors at the ready, for this agriculture department won't

stop trying to sneak ever-slicker and stinkier agribusiness schemes past us.

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