But even more troubling, the various sectors of agriculture itself are disconnecting from one another. With the acceleration of specialization and concentration, and the industrialization of American agriculture, we see a narrowing of interests and goals, increased conflict, and fewer institutional mechanisms and opportunities to act cooperatively and to think broadly about the overall goals of American agriculture. 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.