Associated Press & USA Today Cover OCA Victory on Body Care & Supplements

From: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2005-08-24-organic-us
at_x.htm

Soap can proudly display certified 'organic' label
By Libby Quaid The Associated Press

WASHINGTON < The government is reversing its decision to yank the "USDA
Organic" seal from lotions and lip balms and will now allow cosmetics to
carry the round, green label.

An organic soap company and a consumer group had sued the Agriculture
Department for ordering removal of the distinctive seal.

Without the government seal, the word organic is "just a fluff marketing
claim," David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, said
Wednesday. "It's kind of a truth-in-advertising thing < consumers can trust
that it is, indeed, free of synthetics and does support organic farming and
agriculture."

Bronner's company and the Organic Consumers Association sued the department
in June.

The department created the label three years ago for food and other products
grown without pesticides or fertilizer and made with all-natural,
chemical-free ingredients. It applies to meat and dairy products from
animals given organic feed and access to the outdoors and never given
antibiotics or growth hormones.

Department officials decided in April they didn't have the authority to
regulate cosmetics and ordered companies to remove the USDA seal. Late
Tuesday, a day before a deadline to respond to the lawsuit, it issued a memo
reversing itself.

Barbara Robinson, head of the department's National Organic Program, said
officials have struggled over the issue, particularly because the program is
still new.

"We're USDA. We're looking at it from an agricultural perspective. We do
agricultural products here. We do food," Robinson said in an interview. "We
don't do cosmetics here. We're not lipstick. We're not mouthwash. We're not
lawn-care products. It takes awhile to sit down and look at this and say,
all right, how do we make this work?"

In the end, officials decided the product use doesn't matter as long as it
follows the rules. In other words, Robinson said, "What difference does it
make if you brush your teeth with it or eat it?"

The reversal also allows dietary supplements and pet food to carry the
organic seal. The USDA now is creating organic standards for fish.

The decision to remove the seal from cosmetics frustrated companies that,
like Bronner's, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to find all-organic
ingredients and get certified. Only products cleared by
government-authorized agents can use the seal.

Legal liability was also at stake: Some organic cosmetics companies have
been sued for deceptive labeling because they bore the claim.

Now it should be clear that, "Just like food, the federal standards pre-empt
any state laws, and if you meet federal standards, the product is organic,"
said William J. Friedman, an attorney defending the companies in state
courts.

Bronner and the consumer group expect to drop the lawsuit pending settlement
talks in the next month, said their attorney, Joe Sandler.

Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2005-08-24-organic-u
sat_x.htm