The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is bending to corporate interest and watering down organic standards by attemppting to compromise on the definition of organic ingredients. They recently even allowed antiobiotics such as tetrecycline used on apple and pear trees to still remain classified as "organic".
It used to be that the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) would review exempted and allowed ingredients every 5 years. All non-organic exempted ingredients would be automatically removed from the list unless the NOSB voted to approve it for an additional 5 years. But this past fall, USDA Deputy Administrator Miles McEvoy announced a new set of rules that would allow ingredients to remain approved indefinitely until a two thirds supermajority vote by the NOSB removed it from the allowed list. This law makes it harder to remove potentially harmful and chemically induced ingredients from so-called organic products.
As consumers, we have a responsibility and a right to know what is being allowed and deemed "organic". The USDA, sadly, as in many government operations, is becoming corrupt and bending to corporate interest instead of the interests of the consumers. This makes it highly important for us as consumers to know exactly what our organic products contain.
What other recent approvals do you know of that you feel all of us should watch out for?
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