uried within the $397 billion spending bill passed
last night by Congress is a provision that would permit livestock
producers to certify and label meat as "organic" even if the animals had
been fed partly or entirely on conventional rather than organic grain.
Under the provision, if the Agriculture Department certifies that
organic feed is commercially available only at more than twice the price
of conventional feed, then the department cannot enforce regulations
requiring that livestock labeled organically raised be fed only organic
feed.
"This is an example of someone doing an end run to manipulate the
government with disregard for the public's wishes," said Katherine
DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, which
represents the organic industry.
The provision was added to the omnibus spending bill behind closed
doors on Wednesday night with only Republicans present. It was included on
behalf of a Baldwin, Ga., poultry producer, the Fieldale Farms
Corporation, which has been trying since last summer to get an exemption
that would allow it to feed its chickens a mix of conventional and organic
feed. The company says there is not enough organic feed available.
Congressional officials on both sides of the aisle say Speaker J.
Dennis Hastert added the last-minute provisions at the request of
Representative Nathan Deal, Republican of Georgia.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors
campaign contributions, Mr. Deal received $4,000 from employees of
Fieldale, which is in his district, during his last campaign. Calls to the
offices of Mr. Deal were not returned.
When Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who wrote the
organic standards program, learned of the last-minute addition to the
spending bill he sent a letter to his colleagues urging them to defeat the
provisions. Both he and Representative Sam Farr, Democrat of California,
plan to introduce legislation to strike the provisions from the bill.
"This whole thing is absolutely outrageous," Mr. Leahy said. "After
years and years and years of work, to have someone sneak it in in the dark
of night and wipe it out makes no sense. It's a poke in the eye of a lot
of very hard-working organic farmers."
Ed Nicholson, a spokesman for Tyson
Foods, which is test marketing organic chickens, said: "We opposed
adding this language to the omnibus spending bill. We think it is
important to meet the organic requirements because otherwise it will
compromise the integrity of the organic standards."
The organic rules, which took effect in October, are an attempt to
standardize a hodgepodge of regulations for an $11 billion industry that
has been growing at the rate of 20 percent a year for a decade.
The 2002 Farm Bill directed the agriculture secretary to assess the
availability of organically produced feed for livestock and poultry. The
report has not been released, but information from Organic Trade
Association members indicates that organic feed is commercially available
at prices lower than those in the language of the exemption.
"I think this jeopardizes the whole organic industry in the United
States," Mr. Farr said of the provision before
Congress.
