Organics has metamorphosed from the stage of cottage industry to that of big business. It now faces all the contradictions from which the counterculture that gave birth to the movement sought to escape. The opportunities presented by the rapid growth in demand also have attracted players with little philosophical or moral commitment to organics as a core value. In one Minnesota case, company owners were actually sentenced to serve jail time for organic labeling fraud. Several more California companies have been heavily fined for violating the California Organic Foods Act.
Ants follow fat.
Success has its price. The hope for creating community, or at least coherence, out of chaos was placed in the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act. NOSB deliberations took some time, and the subsequent development and promulgation of proposed regulations by USDA took even more. But USDA has finally issued its proposed regulations. The big question is whether these regulations, by leveling the playing field, will bring order out of chaos.