New Attack on Organic Standards!! ***ACTION ITEM***

[nosmokes]

adding insult to injury, instead of the normal public comment period of 30 days - 90 days, they're attempting to push this through with a public comment period of 7 days. ain't this government grand?
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original-OCA

ORGANIC ALERT

Another Sneak Attack On Organic Standards:

USDA & Industry Try To Sneak Banned Conventional Ingredients
into Organic Beer, Sausage, and Processed Foods

The USDA has announced a controversial proposal, with absolutely no input from consumers, to allow 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the "USDA Organic" seal.

Most of the ingredients are food colorings derived from plants that are supposedly not "commercially available" in organic form. But at least three of the proposed ingredients, backed by beer giant Anheuser-Busch and pork and food processors, represent a serious threat to organic standards, and have raised the concerns of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), as well as a number of smaller organic companies and organic certifiers.
~snip~
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complete alert including sign-on petition here

[gollygee]

1. This is complete bullshit

I have a friend whose daughter is allergic to some food colorings. Guess what kinds of foods she gets her daughter to make sure she doesn't have to break out the epi-pen?

[doni_georgia]

21. Yep same here - my son is allergic to long list of dyes and preservatives

He's also allergic to wheat and dairy, so I basically buy nothing processed even if it is organic. It's a pain in the butt, but at least I know every ingredient in everything I make.

[underpants]

2. My wife and I are going to some local farms this weekend

we have had it with this imported uninspected food nonsense. We are buying as local as possible.

This whole thing is bewilderingly outrageous.

[MH1]

3. k&r - thanks for posting. n/t

[kestrel91316]

4. Signed. Forwarded to friends. K&R

[Greyskye]

5. K & R

We try to only buy locally grown/raised organic foodstuffs. This latest gambit by the USDA makes me sick! Figuratively for now - probably literally later on if measures like this keep passing! :grr:

:kick:

[kimmerspixelated]

6. Thanks for posting!

Done!!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. Do these fuckers ever rest? n/t

[file83]

10. LOL! No shit..."Oh hey, look, something good for people that we can shit all over!"

They never rest.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. I just gets worse and worse. Do they skin puppies alive in their spare time or something? n/t

[NashVegas]

18. Only 5 Days For Public Input?

Oy!

[NYC]

8. Recommended.

Everything to benefit the corporations. The consumer be damned (or poisoned).

[demobabe]

9. Did you know....

...a product bearing the USDA Organic seal can be up to 5% non-organic?

The packaging can still say "Organic," it just can't say "100% organic."

I was also surprised to learn recently that there is no USDA organic standard for fish, so fish billed as "organic" can mean nearly anything. Only livestock and crops have the organic standard.

[Shallah Kali]

12. Also there is no standard for Natural claims. Lying about Organic can get $11,000 per item fine

http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Consumers/brochure.html

[file83]

11. done. K&R

:kick:

[Shallah Kali]

13. K&R!

!

[CrispyQ]

14. It seems every few years they attack the organic standards

& the grass roots has to respond to keep it from happening. :eyes:

Thanks for the post.

[Javaman]

16. It seems to me that Anheuser-Busch is doing it's best to get on the organic wagon

without actually having to be organic.

"look folks, organic beer! now you can drink to you hearts content and get the biggest beer gut in your neighborhood without feeling completely guilty!!!"

Sigh.

more than likely Anheuser-Busch gets their grain and hops via some GMO corp like monsanto.

If you want organic folks, go to your local farmers market. Organic from china is not organic since fossil fuels are needed to transport it over 4 to 5 thousand miles to your store as opposed to 10 or 20 miles from the field.

[Shallah Kali]

17. It's the same with all the corporations. they want to use radiation, toxic sludge, toxic chemicals

gentically modified organizims including those with human dna, just like conventional food but get that hefty markup the Organic label brings. kinda like those who sell tilapia as red snapper for twice the price only in this case making many people ill.

[NashVegas]

19. I'm Spreading This Everywhere - Factory Farmed Pork Labeled as Organic? Bullshit!

[mainegreen]

20. The USDA Organic program needs to be ditched.

Corporate control of the word organic needs to be revoked.

[MadHound]

22. The organic standards have been compromised almost from the beginning

They are designed to allow corporate farms and Big Ag to take over, dominate and monopolize organic farming, much as they did with regular farming. Another ploy to drive the small farmer to the wall. This was the plan from the beginning and it is being carried out with ruthless efficiency.

You want real food? Do you want to help the small farmer? Then stop buying that so called organic crap in the store and instead get yourself down to your local farmers market, CSA, or out into the country to meet the farmers face to face. Get to know where your food is coming from instead of relying on compromised labeling and standards.

If you really want a label to look for, then I highly recommend that you look for the Certified Naturally Grown label <http://www.naturallygrown.org/> This farmer founded organization was formed as a direct response to the onerous monetary burden that the USDA organic certification put on the small farmer, and has evolved as an alternative to that program. While they use the USDA standards as a starting point, they are deliberately keeping their own standards much more traditionally organic, while the USDA continues to cheapen their organic standards by allowing more and more chemicals into the mix.

[Karenina]

23. Kick!

:kick:

[nam78_two]

24. Too late to recommend-here is a kick.nt

[upi402]

25. LINK -scroll to bottom

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11401

Here's where I signed the action alert. I scrolled to the bottom.

[Shallah Kali]

26. Last Day to Fight This! Kick!

Go here and scroll to the bottom:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11401