"organic products" news and stories

You seek out organics at the grocery store, and often pay for the privilege. But is what you're buying really organic? Official organic standards have been in place in this country since 2002, but according to an investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General earlier this month, that bag of organic salad mix you tossed into your cart last week might not even meet basic federal standards. The problem? The Feds simply aren't enforcing their own rules.

It's the job of the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP) to oversee organic products (ensuring they meet organic standards and carry correct labeling), but the OIG discovered major failings. One of the worst? Organic laws call for periodic residue testing, but no testing program exists. (This boggles the mind, no?)

From the OIG report: "None of the four certifying agents we visited conducted periodic residue testing of the approximately 5,000 certified operations for which they were responsible, and there is no assurance that certifying agents performed regular periodic testing at any of the approximately 28,000 certified organic operations worldwide. Without such testing, the potential exists that an operation's products may contain substances that are prohibited for use in organic products."