We are writing, however, to express our concern that the Proposed Rules fail to conform with consumer expectations and, if implemented, would cause serious economic harm to the organic industry. We urge you to rewrite the Proposed Rules so that they reflect industry norms as represented by existing private, state, and international standards. As you know, the NOSB was established by Congress to provide public participation and industry expertise in the development of standards and to determine the proposed National List of allowable synthetics in organic production. Regrettably, the Proposed Rules ignore many of the NOSB recommendations and specifically disregard the authority Congress granted to the NOSB to determine the narrow list of allowable synthetics. The result a USDA proposal that is almost universally condemned by those it seeks to help.
Consumers expect organic products to be produced in the most environmentally sound manner possible.
They also expect such products to be produced free of genetic engineering, biosolids, and ionizing radiation. We expect USDA to uphold these marketing distinctions so important to consumers, cultivated by organic farmers, and which profit American agriculture in so many ways. Thank you for your attention to our concerns. If you do not have a Return to previous page link above, please use your browsers back button or our sitemap to return to your previous location.