USDA may relax standards for organic foods

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Just what we need to add more food problems

Elyse

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From the Los Angeles Times

USDA may relax standards for organic foods

The agency is considering a list of 38 nonorganic spices, colorings and

other ingredients that would be allowed in products it deems 'organic.'

By J.

Times Staff Writer

June 9, 2007

With the " USDA organic " seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch calls its

Wild Hop Lager " the perfect organic experience. "

" In today's world of artificial flavors, preservatives and factory farming,

knowing what goes into what you eat and drink can just about drive you

crazy, " the Wild Hop website says. " That's why we have decided to go back to

basics and do things the way they were meant to be … naturally. "

But many beer drinkers may not know that Anheuser-Busch has the organic

blessing from federal regulators even though Wild Hop Lager uses hops grown

with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides.

A deadline of midnight Friday to come up with a new list of nonorganic

ingredients allowed in USDA-certified organic products passed without action

from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, leaving uncertain whether some

foods currently labeled " USDA organic " would continue to be produced.

The agency is considering a list of 38 nonorganic ingredients that will be

permitted in organic foods. Because of the broad uses of these ingredients —

as colorings and flavorings, for example — almost any type of manufactured

organic food could be affected, including cereal, sausage, bread and beer.

Organic food advocates have fought to block approval of some or all of the

proposed ingredients, saying consumers would be misled.

" This proposal is blatant catering to powerful industry players who want the

benefits of labeling their products 'USDA organic' without doing the work to

source organic materials, " said Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the

Organic Consumers Assn. of Finland, Minn., a nonprofit group that boasts

850,000 members.

USDA spokeswoman Joan Shaffer declined to comment on the plan.

Food manufacturers said this week that they were hoping the agency would

approve the rules by Friday to continue labeling their products as organic.

A federal judge had given the USDA until midnight Friday to name the

nonorganic ingredients it would allow in organic foods, but the agency did

not release its final list by the end of the day.

" They probably don't know what to do " Cummins said. " On the other hand, it's

hard to believe they're going to make people change their labels, although

that's what they should do. "

Demand for organic food in the U.S. is booming as consumers seek products

that are more healthful and friendlier to the environment. Sales have more

than doubled in the last five years, reaching $16.9 billion last year,

according to the Organic Trade Assn. in Greenfield, Mass., which represents

small and large food producers.

But with big companies entering what was formerly a mom-and-pop industry,

new questions have arisen about what exactly goes into organic food. For

food to be called organic, it must be grown without chemical fertilizers and

pesticides. Animals must be raised without antibiotics and growth hormones

and given some access to the outdoors.

Many nonorganic ingredients, including hops, are already being used in

organic products, thanks to a USDA interpretation of the Organic Foods

Protection Act of 1990. In 2005, a federal judge disagreed with how the USDA

was applying the law and gave the agency two years to revise its rules.

Organic food supporters had hoped that the USDA would allow only a small

number of substances, but were dismayed last month when the agency released

the proposed list of 38 ingredients.

" Adding 38 new ingredients is not just a concession by the USDA, it is a

major blow to the organic movement in the U.S. because it would erode

consumer confidence in organic standards, " said Carl Chamberlain, a research

assistant with the Pesticide Education Project in Raleigh, N.C.

In addition to hops, the list includes 19 food colorings, two starches,

casings for sausages and hot dogs, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin

and a host of obscure ingredients (one, for instance, is a " bulking agent "

and sweetener with the tongue-twisting name of fructooligosaccharides).

Under the agency's proposal, as much as 5% of a food product could be made

with these ingredients and still get the " USDA organic " seal. Hops, though a

major component of beer's flavor, are less than 5% of the final product

because the beverage is mostly water.

Sales of organic beer, though still a small portion of total beer sales,

have been growing even faster than overall organic food sales. They reached

$19 million in 2005, a 40% increase over the previous year (2006 figures are

not yet available).

Trying to get a share of the market for green products, Anheuser-Busch

introduced two organic beers in September, and soon pitched them in fliers

to wholesalers.

" Environmentally conscious consumers are looking for certified organic

products, including beer, the fastest-growing organic beverage, " the pitch

said. " Capitalize on this growing market with Wild Hop Lager and Stone Mill

Pale Ale. "

But while the two beers use 100% organic barley malt, less than 10% of the

hops they use is organic. Hops are conelike flowers that grow on vines and

impart a bitter taste on beer to offset the sweetness of malts.

Anheuser-Busch said it simply couldn't find enough organic hops.

" There currently is only a small supply of organically grown hops available

for purchase by brewers, and we purchased all we could for brewing these

beers, " said Doug Muhleman, vice president of brewing operations for

Anheuser-Busch Inc.

But that argument doesn't wash with Klisch, owner of Milwaukee's

Lakefront Brewery, which has been producing beer with 100% organic hops

since 1996.

" If we can do it, we think Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest beer producer

with virtually unlimited resources, should be able to follow our example, "

he said.

Klisch said there were enough organic hops to satisfy 90% of the current

organic beer demand in the U.S., but some brewers were put off by their

higher price.

There are no organic hops commercially grown in the U.S.; most come from New

Zealand, Britain and Germany. But Klisch has recently contracted with two

Wisconsin farmers to grow some on their land. He doesn't understand why

large brewers can't do the same.

" You're telling me that Anheuser-Busch can't find a little plot of ground

somewhere to grow organic hops? " he said.

In addition to hops, two other items on the USDA list have attracted

particular attention: casings for sausages and hot dogs, and fish oil.

Casings are the intestines of cows, pigs or sheep, which have been used for

centuries to wrap meat into sausages and frankfurters.

Although the casings are a tiny portion of the overall sausage, organic

purists object to eating anything from animals that are raised on

conventional farms, where livestock may be housed in tight quarters and

given antibiotics and growth hormones. Further, they note that the USDA's

food safety division has identified cow intestines as a possible source of

bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

But the USDA has already banned part of the cow's small intestines for human

consumption because of the risk of mad cow disease. Barbara Negron,

president of the North American Natural Casing Assn. in New York, said

casings were safe to eat.

" It's a very safe, clean and natural product, " she said. " It's not an

organic product. It's a natural product. "

It's very difficult to maintain pure organic eating habits, Negron added,

" unless you want to lock yourself up and only raise your own food. "

Fish oil's presence on the USDA list has drawn objections because it could

carry high levels of heavy metals and other contaminants, said Jim Riddle, a

former member of the National Organic Standards Board. But fish oil

producers said such contaminants could be screened out through proper

processing.

The USDA rules come with what appears to be an important consumer

protection: Manufacturers can use nonorganic ingredients only if organic

versions are not " commercially available. "

But food makers have found a way around this barrier, in part because the

USDA doesn't enforce the rule directly. Instead, it depends on its

certifying agents — 96 licensed organizations in the U.S. and overseas — to

decide for themselves what it means for a product to be available in organic

form.

Despite years of discussion, the USDA has yet to provide certifiers with

standardized guidelines for enforcing this rule.

" There is no effective mechanism for identifying a lack of organic

ingredients, " complained executives of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, a

nonprofit certifying agent, in a letter to the USDA. " It is a very

challenging task to 'prove a negative' regarding the organic supply. "

Large companies have a better chance of winning approval to use nonorganic

ingredients because the amount they demand can exceed the small supply of

organic equivalents, said Craig Minowa, environmental scientist for the

Organic Consumers Assn.

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