Cornucopia Institute / USA: "The Organic Watergate"

The Cornucopia Institute is challenging what it calls a “conspiracy” between corporate agribusiness interests and the USDA that has increasingly facilitated the use of questionable synthetic additives and even dangerous chemicals in organic foods. In its new white paper, The Organic Watergate, Cornucopia reports on "violations of federal law, ignoring congressional intent, which has created a climate of regulatory abuse and corporate exploitation".

When Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 in the USA, it set up an independent advisory panel, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) that, uniquely, has statutory power. Any synthetic input or ingredient used in organic farming or food production must be reviewed by the NOSB to assure that it is not a threat to human health or the environment. The Cornucopia report accuses the USDA of “stacking the NOSB with agribusiness executives that all too often have sold out the interests of organic farmers and consumers."

Despite these problems, Cornucopia’s report is optimistic on organics and hopeful that the situation at the USDA can be turned around. There are fewer than 300, mostly benign, non-organic and synthetic compounds that have been approved for use in organics in the USA. That number is small compared with the many thousands of chemicals used in conventional food production, many of them highly toxic and carcinogenic. “We implore consumers not to reject organics because a handful of corporations have acted recklessly and the USDA has failed to do their legally mandated job. Organic farmers, and their ethical processing partners, need support now more than ever,” Mark A. Kastel, Codirector of The Cornucopia Institute, states. “And health conscious families deserve authentic organic food.”

The Cornucopia Institute