For farmers, the standards create clear guidelines for how to take advantage of the exploding demand for organic products. For consumers, the organic standards offer another choice in the marketplace. Those who want to buy organic can do so with the confidence of knowing exactly what it is that they're buying. I want to talk for a minute about how we reached this final rule, because I think the process is critical to the strength of the standards. There's a misperception, I think, about how government rules are drawn up.
Some people believe that it's done behind closed doors, without accountability or public input.
The reality is that it is a transparent, fully inclusive process, and the drafting of the organic standards was no different. In fact, the organic standards represent government rule-making at its very best. They are the product of a full-throated public debate. Most notably, we revised the standards to say that no food could be called organic if irradiation, sewage sludge, or genetic engineering was used in its production. This change will be an important step in facilitating international trade, as the 70 percent threshold is consistent with the standard used in the European Union, our top organic export market.