17.5.04

As long as you don't know what exactly it is your spraying on your tomatoes, you can still call them "organic"

The Organic Consumers Association wishes to make you aware of the new Bush administration rules on "organic" labelling which pretty much open up agribusiness to shovel whatever they want down your throat and call it good for you. (link)

UPDATE: Some of the proposed changes have been tossed out. For example, there was a proposed change to allow a farmer to sell his or her produce as organic as long as "reasonable effort" to determine the actual composition of pesticides used didn't turn up anything known to be really harmful. Which I guess would encourage people to sell "mystery pesticides," that one was rescinded. The USDA is now instructed to also listen to the recommendations of the "National Organic Standards Board" instead of just Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland. (story)

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