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.
