The US Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has urged the public to back its opposition to an amendment to the Agricultural Appropriations bill that it says will weaken US organic standards.
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Congress is considering an amendment sponsored by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) that would allow small amounts of non-organic ingredients in food carrying the USDA Organic seal.
An appeals court decided earlier this year that non-organic substances should not be allowed in food labelled as organic. However, Congress could decide this week to overturn the ruling, which has not yet been implemented, by backing an amendment that seeks to clarify a 1990 organic standards law.
The OTA said that unless the law is clarified, numerous products now bearing the USDA Organic seal could disappear from store shelves, thus threatening the growth of the organic industry.
The USDA Organic seal currently guarantees that a product carrying the label is made from at least 95% organic ingredients, but a small amount of non-organic ingredients and processing aids can be used.
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By GlobalData“We believe that the current standards, which represent the result of a unique partnership between the government and the public and private sectors, need to remain intact in order to minimise disruption and marketplace confusion and to protect the growing marketplace for organic farmers,” said Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of OTA.
The OTA claims that US organic standards are as strict as any in the world, and that throughout the world there are lists of specific allowed materials that are essential to making numerous organic processed products. These are non-agricultural materials, such as baking powder, carbon dioxide and certain sanitizers, that the OTA says are necessary for many processed foods.
The OCA, however, has said the amendment could allow numerous synthetic processing aids to be used in organic food without any public review, young dairy cows to be treated with antibiotics and fed genetically engineered feed prior to being converted to organic production, and organic ingredients to be substituted with non-organic ingredients without any consumer notice based upon “emergency decrees”.
The OCA said the amendment was stopped in the Senate by consumer pressure two weeks ago but industry pressure has brought it back.
