The U.S. Department of Agriculture has withdrawn a “guidance statement” regarding organic food production. Some feared the directive was an attempt by the government to relax standards for organic foods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has withdrawn a “guidance statement” regarding
organic food production. Some feared the directive was an attempt by the government to
relax standards for organic foods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner
reports:
Critics said the USDA’s “guidance statement” was actually a new policy that could
lead to more synthetic pesticides being used on organic farms. But USDA officials said
the statement only clarified an existing law, and was issued in response to questions from
people who certify organic operations.
The department has now withdrawn those new statements. Andrea Caroe is on the National Organics Standards Board. She says confusion over the issue raises some new questions.
“Perhaps the regulation is not suiting the community the way it should and that we
should look at the process to evaluate how we could improve the regulation or the law.”
Agriculture officials say they’ll work with the Organics Standards Board to find a way to
address producers’ concerns.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.