Updated and Expanded OCA Talking Points on Safeguarding Organic Standards

From the Organic Consumers Association

11/7/2005

The controversial "Sneak Attack" rider on Organic Standards--part of the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill--launched by large food processors and the Organic Trade Association, has now been rammed through Congress by the Republican majority, ignoring more than 320,000 letters and phone calls from organic consumers, and ignoring pleas by Democratic members of Congress to modify the rider.

Organic consumers, farmers, and retailers will eventually move to reverse this rider and strengthen federal legislation on organic standards through legislative action, the Organic Restoration Act, as soon as the balance of power in Congress has shifted away from Republican Party extremists and corporate agribusiness special interests.

In the meantime we will fight to stop the ongoing degradation of organic standards by calling for the (A) closing the loophole in organic standards--left intact by the OTA rider--that is allowing unscrupulous dairy operators and factory farm dairy feedlots to import calves from conventional farms, where the animals routinely have been weaned on blood, fed genetically engineered grains and slaughterhouse waste, and injected or medicated with antibiotics; (B) stopping the blatantly illegal and unethical practice of allowing intensive confinement dairy feedlots (such as those operated by Horizon, and Aurora Organic--both prominent members of the OTA) to label their products as "USDA Organic" even when the dairy cows have no real access to pasture; and (C) ensuring that the USDA does not pack the National Organic Standards Board Board with corporate agribusiness, pro-industrial organic advocates.

Considerations for further action to preserve strict organic standards and review of standards include the following:

(1) American Consumers in general (46% of whom now say they buy some organic products as least occasionally) expect to find few or no synthetic substances (ingredients, processing aids, food contact substances) in or on products labeled as organic, especially those products bearing the "USDA Organic" seal (95-100% organic). A 2005 survey conducted by the Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, found that 85% of consumers expect to find few or no synthetic substances in organic products. On the other hand, sales figures ($15 billion a year for organic and made with organic, $30 billion a year for products labeled as "natural") show that consumers are quite willing to pay a premium price for what they perceive to be healthier and more sustainably produced products, even if they do not bear the "USDA Organic" seal, i.e. those labeled as "made with organic" or even "natural." Ten cents of every grocery store dollar today spent by American consumers today goes for organic, made with organic, and natural products. The goal of the Organic Consumers Association is to create public awareness and a marketplace dynamic that speeds up the fundamental transformation of food and farming in America, whereby made with organic products increasingly move into the purer, less synthetic category of organic, while more and more "natural" products move into the category of "made with organic." This dynamic in turn will gradually move the other 90% of conventional grocery store products into the more natural and organic category.

(2) Organic Consumers want and expect rigorous and transparent review by our traditional organic community, watchdog, the National Organic Standards Board, over what synthetic substances can be used in or on products labeled as organic (95-100% organic) as well as products labeled as "Made with Organic..." (70-94% organic) and certainly want NOSB review over whether or not organic ingredients are "commercially available" or not. Over a ten year period the NOSB (1995-2005) has carefully reviewed and approved 38 (plus six reviewed and not yet officially put on the National List of approved synthetics) synthetic substances. The organic community wants and expects equally strict review of the 500+ synthetic substances currently under application for use in organic production. Unfortunately the Sneak Attack rider undermines NOSB review of most synthetic substances (food processing aids and food contact substances), as well as commercial availability of organic ingredients.

(3) Organic Consumers want and expect transparency in the nomination and appointment of our traditional community watchdogs over organic standards, the National Organic Standards Board. If the USDA and Bush administration violate our expectations in this regard, we will fight back vigorously.

(4) Organic Consumers, farmers, companies, and retailers want and demand strict organic standards and NOSB and community review of these standards, ingredients, and practices. We do not trust the USDA--because of their long and obvious track record in promoting chemical-intensive agriculture, corporate globalization, and genetic engineering--to determine and police these standards and practices. If the USDA and the dominant companies in the OTA continue to ignore consumer and organic community expectations, especially the expectations of small and medium-sized farmers, retailers, and companies, we will set up our own label, certification, and accreditation system and point out to consumers that "USDA Organic" means "grade B organic," and that consumers looking for "grade A" will have to look for our new label.