Submitted by Steve Gilman, Jul 18, 2007 12:14

While the National Organic Program (NOP), housed in the Dept of Agriculture's Agriculture Marketing Service, likes to restrict their organic designation to a marketing label, this approach continually bumps up against the long-time practices and ideals of the organic movement that are based on well-proven health and environmental considerations. But, due to the heavy Agribusiness influence within its ranks, no way is USDA going to give a stamp of approval to "organic is better" designations -- hence, to them it's just a marketing label. However, third party verified Organic Certification standards were established long before the NOP rule kicked in in 2001 -- requiring the annual inspection of farms, handlers and purveyors by highly trained and certified independent agents, as well as copious documentation required by accredited certifiers, who also require a detailed audit trail between the tomato in the marketplace and its location origin in the tomato planting in the field -- providing a complete traceback. As organic is a "practice-based" agriculture, (Ie. a method that doesn't use synthetic chemicals) it makes sense to document the practices, although testing IS used when fraud is suspected or when disease or toxicity is reported in the marketplace. in the US, organic certification has teeth and documented integrity. In today's bastardized wild west capitalism of China, however, the couterfeit cuture their makes a mockery of ALL our food safety endeavors. Industrial food manufacturers of canned and processed supermarket products buy the chepest processed food ingredients available on the global market and Chinese companies have been adept at undercutting prices -- as well as undercutting quality, as we are now finding out. Although FDA is responsible for monitoring food imports, thanks to the food industry machinations their budget has been cut so much they can only inspect around 1% of the food entering this country. That has to change, quickly. And they should also be doing their job testing organic imports on a regular basis. The bottom line is BUYER BEWARE -- and vote with your food dollars for local, organic non-processed foods at every opportunity. Steve Gilman Ruckytucks Farm

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