Imagine, if you will, a pastoral landscape. Here we find open green pastures under clear blue skies. In this landscape a herd of dairy cows is happily grazing, freely pursuing whatever it is that such animals pursue. The milk produced by these cows is organic, and appropriately labelled as such on its packaging.
Now imagine a large number of cows, tightly penned in. Their diet does not include the fruits of open grazing. In fact they are sometimes fed slaughterhouse refuse, antibiotics and engineered grains. And yet the milk produced by this animals is sometimes also called organic. How can that be?
The answer can be summed up in two words: big business. Big business has noticed that while sales of “conventional” food products have shown limited growth, sales of organic foods have been seeing large and steady increases over the past few years. And big business wants a piece of the action.
While most producers endeavor to provide products that can honestly be called organic, two large companies are playing by a different set of rules.
Two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods), a supplier to Wal-Mart and many health food stores; and Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant, Wild Oats and others, are purchasing the majority of their milk from feedlot dairies where the cows have little or no access to pasture. Together, these corporations control up to 65% of the organic dairy market.
The USDA has proposed revisions to the National Organic Program. Public comment is being sought. The deadline is June 12, 2006. The revisions are here.
Here’s one telling section:
The proposed rule revises the NOP regulations to clarify that non-organically produced products listed in section 205.606 of the regulations may be used as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as “organic” or “made with” organic ingredients, only when such organic products are not commercially available.
I would question why there would be any use of such non-organic ingredients at all. Would other manufacturers use inferior components if necessary ones were not available?
You can take action here or here.
I would urge you to do so
A further food-related issue is found in food labelling legislation, previously passed by the House and currently before the Senate. The National Uniformity for Food Act will do away with the ability of states to set their own more stringent guidelines. Instead, federal legislation will supercede and roll back labelling standards. Under the legislation, states will be required to apply to the federal government for permission to set more stringent labelling.
You may take action here.
The Senate needs to hear from you.
I went and signed both statements via your links, boran2. Thanks for your vigilance on the food-related issues.
I was always a milk lover growing up but developed a bad allergy to something in the milk. I figured it was lactose intolerance, but I’ve discovered that I don’t have a problem with the organic stuff. It disgusts me that these corporations are co-opting (pun intended) the marketing value of the term organic. I’m not surprised, but it’s still disgusting.
We got into the organic thing after my wife’s health issues, and have never looked back. Reading ingredient labels these days is alarming.
Done.
Signed em 🙂 Thanks Boran2!!!!
Did both.
So I signed both of them too. Thanks boran2 for bringing this to our attention.
The crackpots currently in charge will cut corners anywhere for a buck. Anywhere!
No we can no longer trust that organic actually means – organic.
Now we no longer…
I signed both petitions via your link. Thanks for the information and providing me with the ability to speak out on this important issues that affect all of us.
thanks for bringing this to our attention!
Yep, what’s happening is that the demand for “organic” products is so high, there’s a short supply — because not as many farmers are willing (or able) to use the more expensive and labor-intensive methods necessary to qualify. And so the big food conglomerates are trying to bend the rules so they can get a cut of the new hot market. Pleading as their excuse to lower the standards that there just isn’t enough of the actual organic product to meet the need, therefore it’s necessary to lower the standards to do so.
Instead of, say, changing their production methods to actually qualify for this new market, they want to change the rules so their current very profitable methods rake them in the same big bucks.
What percentage of the food product has to actually be made from organic sources to qualify as being “organic”? Common sense would say ALL of it… but that would cut out too much of what’s actually available to sell. You can’t sell a product labeled as “57% organic” — so they have to come up with new regulations that say as long as SOMETHING in the product qualifies as organic, then the entire packaged product can be labeled as organic.
Sort of like the kosher law in reverse… where one non-kosher ingredient or method used will disqualify the food from being considered kosher….eventually one ingredient actually being organically grown will magically transform the entire food product… right?
Soon it will be impossible to sell anything that isn’t labeled as “organic” — because somehow EVERTHING will justify that label, just like the words “Healthy” and “Nutritious” and “New and Improved!”… and mean nothing.
Twenty-five years ago when I moved to rural Idaho, I began buying my meat products and eggs from local small time producers who are as organic and non-chemical as you can get. The thing I have noticed most is that there is a world of difference in the flavor, tastes, and tenderness in these products. They taste so much better I can’t imagine why anyone would prefer the “grocery store” variety. And free range chicken and eggs are something else. The yolks of these eggs are the deep yellow-orange I remember from childhood, not the pale yellowish stuff you buy in the store.
Truth in labeling. . .going down faster than you can blink an eye. The Corporations want to label their products any way that will make them sell, and they will get their wish. Dems have no more spine on this issue than the repugs.
Glad there are still places near me to get real food not poisoned by chemicals and all the other rare and unnecessary additives that mega producers use.
Signed the petitions, but I am not real hopeful on this one.
As I started reading this diary I thought it had something to do with the State of Freedom in America.
It was how the first two paragraphs started that I found myself substituting the word “freedom” for “organic”.
Somehow it is an apt description of the State of Democracy today.
Strange sometimes gets stranger than strange.