New USDA Rules for "Organic"

Consumers who have been worried about the enforcement of federal organic food regulations under the George W. Bush administration -- and the stringency of the regulations themselves -- may now have less cause for worry, according to a piece just published in the Washington Post. With Walmart and other big retailers going organic, food labeled "organic" has become big business, with sales of over $24 billion per year.

On February 12, the United States Department of Agriculture published new rules governing the pasturage of livestock whose meat and milk receives organic certification. Previously, these animals only had to have "access to pasturage" -- a regulation so loose as to be virtually meaningless. Now, that ambiguous phrase has been strictly defined: Animals must be permitted to graze at least four months out of the year, and receive 30 percent of their sustenance from that source during those periods.
Cynics may wonder how the Department of Agriculture is going to enforce the new rules with its notorious shortage of inspectors, and also wonder how the oversight would even be accomplished (a guy sitting on a grassy knoll with binoculars?), but the Post quotes organic fruit and vegetable farmer Tom Willey, of Madera, Calif. "During the Clinton and the Bush administrations there wasn't a lot of teeth in the enforcement aspect of it... but now we're very hopeful that will change," he said.

Another recent regulation offers further cause for optimism: Last August the department announced an audit of the National Organic Program, which is now a tangled mess of 100 certifying organizations, in an attempt to make regulations more consistent and more transparent.