A meaningless label.Byline: The Register-Guard To consumers, the "organic" label is supposed to carry specific and unambiguous meaning: no pesticides, hormones Hormones Chemicals produced by glands in the body that circulate in the blood and control the actions of cells and organs. Estrogens are hormones that affect breast cancer growth. Mentioned in: Breast Cancer, Hypoparathyroidism or antibiotics Antibiotics Definition Antibiotics may be informally defined as the subgroup of anti-infectives that are derived from bacterial sources and are used to treat bacterial infections. were used to raise the food, and food with the organic label contains no synthetic ingredients. But to the giant industrial food producers, the "organic" label also means money - big money. Organic foods fetch premium prices, and the market for such foods is expanding at a red-hot 20 percent a year. That's why the food giants such as Kraft have flexed their powerful lobbying muscles to get Congress to weaken U.S. Department of Agriculture organic food standards. Ever since 2002, when the USDA USDA, n.pr See United States Department of Agriculture. began its program of national organic certification Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants. , small organic food producers have feared encroachment An illegal intrusion in a highway or navigable river, with or without obstruction. An encroachment upon a street or highway is a fixture, such as a wall or fence, which illegally intrudes into or invades the highway or encloses a portion of it, diminishing its width or area, but from the industrial heavyweights. The small farmers were right to be worried. Last week, Republicans quietly slipped an amendment into an agricultural spending bill that opens the door to a fundamental transformation of organic food rules. The amendment allows the agriculture secretary to approve the use of synthetic substances in food labeled "organic" if organic alternatives aren't aren't Contraction of are not. See Usage Note at ain't. aren't are not aren't be commercially available. That doesn't trouble the health-conscious President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill containing the relaxed standards. But it should. Synthetic organic food is an oxymoron. The new rule renders the USDA's organic label virtually meaningless as a guide for consu- mers. |
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