Course Correction: Ag Secretary Rescinds Guidelines That Weakened the Organic Label

June 4, 2004


©2003	HSUS

Responding to protests from consumers, producers and members of Congress, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman recently rescinded four guidelines that would have significantly weakened the organic food standards and allowed agribusiness to employ factory-farming practices and still receive organic certification.

Veneman's surprise announcement on May 26 reversed a disastrous announcement in April, when administrators of the National Organic Program (NOP) issued guidelines that would have, among other things, allowed producers to use antibiotics and hormones on dairy cows and feed nonorganic fishmeal to allegedly organic livestock. These guidelines were issued without consulting the public or the 15-member National Organic Standards Board, in apparent violation of the 1990 law that created the NOP.

The government's reversal earned immediate praise from all corners, from politicians to animal protectionists.

"Secretary Veneman has made the right move in withdrawing the new directives," said Robert Hadad, director of Farming Systems for The HSUS. "Those April regulations would have affected consumers looking for healthier products to feed their families. Since few people have the time to do a background check on their food, we need to trust that labeling schemes, such as USDA Organic, truly have our best interests at heart."

"Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman wisely did an about-face on her department's softening of several organic food standards," the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in a June 1 editorial. "She should improve procedures so that a system on which millions of people rely for health reasons is not again menaced by federal bureaucrats' arbitrary weakening of the rules."

The Politics of Organic Standards

In less than two years since the NOP was officially launched, federal bureaucrats have certainly demonstrated a willingness to play fast and loose with the organic standards, apparently at the bidding of large agribusiness, which wants a piece of the ever-increasing $11 billion organics market.

First, industry influenced directives on outdoor access for organic poultry, so that some companies will actually be allowed to raise chickens completely indoors. Agribusiness then lobbied to loosen requirements on feeding 100% organic feed to the animals while still being certified as USDA Organic. (The development was later overturned with a stroke of a pen.)

The April 2004 guidelines would have weakened the organic standards even more. One guideline would have allowed dairy producers to administer antibiotics and hormones to their cows, provided the animals were weaned off the drugs 12 months before the milk went to market.

That new rule earned a pointed response from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who had helped write the original 1990 law establishing the NOP. In a draft letter to Veneman (which was pre-empted by the Agriculture Secretary's decision), Leahy wrote that the antibiotics/hormones guideline "is in contradiction to the regulation governing organic standards which states, 'The producer of an organic livestock operation must not sell, label or represent as organic any animal or edible product derived from any animal treated with antibiotics.'"

The April regulations would have also allowed nonorganic fishmeal to be used to feed "organic" livestock. This development disturbed both organic producers and consumers alike, since fish, whether farmed or in the wild, can be contaminated with mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

"Many of our waterways remain so polluted that fish, both those on fish farms and in the wild, incorporate pollutants into their flesh," said The HSUS's Hadad. "And these fish would have been the likely food source for so-called organic producers."

Hadad emphasized the need for administrators of the NOP to solicit the advice and recommendations of both the public and the National Organic Standards Board, as required by law. After all, Hadad said, NOP regulations "are one of the few federal laws that provide improved conditions for livestock. Respect for animal life and allowing them to express their natural behaviors are building blocks in the foundation of sustainable organic farming."

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