Cornucopia white paper attacks integrity of USDA organic program

摘要

The Cornucopia Institute takes the USDA's organic program to task in a 75-page paper released May 18, providing a number of examples that it claims show the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), in particular, is merely doing the bidding of big agribusiness. Created by the Organics Food Production Act of 1990, the NOSB, a 15-member committee appointed by the secretary of agriculture, holds the important job of recommending what should go on the National List of Allowed or Prohibited Substances used to qualify foods for USDA's organic seal. The law maintains a strict recipe of how many farmers/growers (four), environmentalists/ resource conservationists (three), consumer advocates (three), handlers/ processors (two), retailers (one), scientists (one) and USDA accredited certifying agents (one) can represent the organic community in the group.