The change will help consumers who hunger for more information in exercising their choices about the food they purchase. It also will help growers who have had trouble exporting products to a more demanding European market. The new rules have strong anti-fraud provisions to protect consumers with allergies or concerns about food additives. The USDA's initial, looser organic standards provoked widespread protests in 1997. The final standards were modified to remove all three practices from organic designation.
Environmentalists have other reasons to welcome the new standards.
Organic crops cannot contain synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, and crops must be rotated. Prohibiting antibiotics in organic meat will remove some synthetic agents from the food chain as well. The rules also go a long way toward easing international tensions over organic standards. Previously, foreign governments had to sort out more than 40 different standards coming from certification agencies across the United States. As a result, many simply chose to avoid American products.