I just read the interview, "Organic vs. 'Organic'" from Acres
Magazine, Vol 41, No 2, in which Acres talks with Cornucopia watchdog member, Mark Kastel.
Last fall, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) met, and Kastel reported that for the first time, none of the incoming board members taking their seats January were corporate players. They are either independent, nonprofit, or academics.
So that's good.
But then the article also tells about a lot of the corruption currently being fought beneath the organic label, such as in the egg,
beef, and
dairy industries.
For example, Aurora Dairy was originally decertified, and then the decision overruled, giving factory farms a
boost from 2 giant CAFOs to 20 while pasture requirement enforcements were delayed 6 years, producing 20-40% of the nation's "organic"
milk supply and hurting truly organic dairy farmers; The Country Hen egg producers were allowed certification as organic for allowing their
chickens small screened "porches" for the
chickens to enjoy; and Horizon organics (owned by Dean foods) was allowed to add DHA and ALA oils to their milk, which, not only are irrelevant to the cognitive/ocular development of infants, but are potentially harmful as they're synthesized in a factory with a petrochemical solvent, hexane, (a neurotoxin) which is explicitly banned under organic standards. The idea behind adding these oils was to mimic breastmilk, encouraging mothers to bottlefeed it to their kids rather than breastfeed.
Lots of frustrating stuff.
The article ends on a positive note, describing two companies that, even while given the space to be crumby, have chosen to be really pretty ethical instead--Eden Foods and Heinz (yes, the ketchup folks).
It's worth a read.
