Mother Jones Releases USDA Memo Detailing Plans To Gut NOSB Recommendations on Organic Standards
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Memo anticipated controversy over labeling genetically modified organisms "organic"

[San Francisco, March 12, 1998]

An internal USDA memo obtained by Mother Jones magazine and published today on the magazine's Web Site (www.motherjones.com) details how the agency bowed to pressure from biotech interests and flouted the recommendations of the board appointed by Congress to approve standards for organic foods. The memo, written eight months before the USDA released its proposed standards last December, discusses several "Hot Issues" that "may generate controversy." These issues include the USDA's decision to allow the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in organic food production and the agency's attempt to wrest control over the National List of substances that can be included in "organic" foods from the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB)-a group of industry experts formed in 1990 as part of the Organic Foods Production Act.

"Few if any existing [organic] standards permit GMOs and their inclusion could affect the export of U.S. grown organic product," reads the memo. "However, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Foreign Agricultural Service are concerned that our trading partners will point to a USDA organic standard that excludes GMOs as evidence of the Department's concern about the safety of bioengineered commodities."

In addition to the USDA agencies listed in the memo, the Clinton White House applied pressure in the GMO decision. According to USDA senior marketing specialist Michael Hankin, the pressure came from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (whose presidential advisory committee includes biotech giant Monsanto's senior vice president for public policy, Virginia Weldon).

"The USDA clearly finds itself in a predicament," writes Mother Jones environmental columnist Leora Broydo, "The United States, with the support of the Clinton administration, has invested tremendous resources in bioagriculture and has become the world's evangelist for genetic engineering. In 1994 alone, the federal biotechnology research budget exceeded $4 billion. It's estimated that 24 million U.S. acres were planted with transgenic or genetically altered crops last year-up from 6 million acres in 1996."

The memo also discusses the USDA's attempt to wrest control from the NOSB over the most important component of the standards-the National List of substances allowed in organic food production. Using a technicality involving the language of the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act, the agency has claimed control over the list. "The intent of the law was to give the NOSB sole authority to place items on the National List," responds Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who co-authored the bill. "If the USDA continues to stand by this interpretation, it is very likely that it will be challenged in the courts."

A three-page chart at the end of the memo details 15 issues where the USDA's proposed regulations differ from the National Organic Standards Board recommendations. Under "pesticide residue," for example, the chart indicates that the NOSB recommendation is that "products containing more than 5% of EPA tolerance cannot be sold as organic," while "the proposed rule does not include this." The reason for the change, according to the chart, is that "this establishes organic as being a 'safer' food, and our program is not a food safety program." # # #

The Mother Jones story and an annotated version of the USDA memo are available on the MoJo Wire (www.motherjones.com).
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A magazine of investigation and ideas for independent thinkers, Mother Jones is in its 21st year of publication. Mother Jones has three National Magazine Awards to its credit and was a finalist for a 1997 NMA. Mother Jones is a perennial winner of the American Journalism Review's "Best in the Business" Award for Investigative Reporting.

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