Lee Metcalf: “8 years ago it became apparent that producers of organic foods were having a marketing problem. The public was confused…”

“8 years ago it became apparent that producers of organic foods were having a marketing problem. The public was confused about what organic meant. The label ``organic food'' was being cheapened by the public confusion. So, in 1990 the Congress passed a law to correct this problem, organic Foods Production Act, a single set of criteria by which food products could be labeled as organic. However, what the USDA is proposing is both overreaching and inadequate. For example, the USDA proposal would allow irradiated foods. Further, the proposal would permit genetically engineered ingredients. It would permit vegetable ingredients where the plants had been fertilized with municipal wastes. I think we need to send this agency, our U.S. Department of Agriculture, out to talk with consumers. They need to find out what organic means to the consumer now, and it does not mean radiated, engineered or sludge-fertilized food. I am emphatically opposed to these proposed standards.”