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The trouble began in 2015, when the Obama administration’s USDA rolled back Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for beef and pork products, allowing meat to be sold without disclosing its home country on the label. But that decision, which angered many American ranchers, has further muddied the waters in a way no one quite anticipated.
While Whole Foods Market, founded in 1980, has been a leading retailer of organic produce in the U.S. for decades, the company has faced its share of criticism; in later years being accused of operating more like an industrial organic company rather than a local distributor of high-quality organic food.
Is paying more for organic milk, meat or a can of beans worth it? The “USDA Organic” label generally signifies a product is made with relatively minimal synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and that animals are raised according to certain guidelines. But disputes over the rules, and questions about adherence, may raise doubts about whether the price is justified.
Regulation isn’t a dirty word to makers of organic food. So they’re pushing back against the Trump administration, which has killed off a slate of proposed regulatory changes for raising and manufacturing organic products after coming to power promising to remove “job-killing regulations.” In recent months, shelved proposals have included those covering animal welfare, the manufacture of pet food and beekeeping.
The widely respected and leading organic breakfast foods manufacturer, Nature’s Path, announced the company’s resignation from membership in the Organic Trade Association (OTA), a prominent and increasingly controversial lobby group representing business interest in the industry. The announcement came in a letter to the organic community last week.
What’s the dirtiest crop on the planet? You may be wearing it.
At a production rate of 25 million tons a year, cotton is one of the top four GMO crops in the world—and nearly 95 percent of that global cotton production is GMO and/or conventionally grown.
Cotton earned the title “dirtiest crop” because it’s sprayed with some of the worst pesticides, including: Bayer’s aldicarb, which was banned in the U.S. in 2010, but reapproved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2016; Syngenta’s paraquat, a highly toxic pesticide banned in the European Union but not in the U.S.; and Monsanto’s glyphosate, classified by the World Health Organization as a “probable” human carcinogen.
Loopholes proposed by the Trump administration could exempt over 10,000 – or one out of six – genetically modified foods from a new GMO disclosure law, according to an EWG analysis. The draft rule may exempt foods produced with GMOs if the food products contain highly refined GMO sugars and oils.
Some farmers transition to organic production to earn premium prices paid for organic crops. Others switch to make their farms more sustainable. But for some farmers transitioning to organic is a necessity to save their health—and even their lives.
Blaine Schmaltz, who farms in Rugby, North Dakota, is a good example. One day in September 1993, Schmaltz was spraying an herbicide on his field. He stopped to check the level in the sprayer tank. Looking inside, he started to feel lame and then passed out. He was later hospitalized for several months with asthma, muscle aches and pains, and insomnia. A doctor diagnosed him as having “occupational asthma.”
After two years of litigation, Handsome Brook, a marketer of certified organic and conventional eggs, and Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) have reached an out-of-court settlement, agreeing to pay their own court costs. After the first allegations became public in 2016, new owners took control of the management of Handsome Brook. They have been fully cooperative in investigations of the company’s past conduct.
Every five years, Congress is tasked with reauthorizing the Farm Bill, a key piece of legislation that determines how $90 billion/year will be spent.
This is one of those years.
Unfortunately, both the House and Senate versions of a proposed 2018 Farm Bill include changes to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) that would make it much easier for industry to use synthetic chemicals in organic food and farming.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED! Tell Congress: Keep organics strong!
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