You wrote:
<<I've seen/heard it mentioned that these 200,000 (give or take) comments
were the most ever received on a rule proposed by a federal agency.
<<Can anyone confirm this?>
This figure comes straight from the USDA press release, specifically:
---
Release No. 0205.98
Andy Solomon (202) 720-4623
andy.solomon@usda.gov
Brad Marman (202) 720-8998
l_brad.marman@usda.gov
USDA TO MAKE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES IN REVISED PROPOSED
RULE ON ORGANIC STANDARDS
WASHINGTON, May 8, 1998--Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman announced today that the U.S. Department of
Agriculture will make fundamental revisions to its proposed
national organic standards as a result of the 200,000
comments USDA received on the initial proposal.
"USDA is committed to developing national organic
standards that organic farmers and consumers will embrace,"
Glickman said. "Thousands of commenters requested that USDA
issue revised proposed standards, and we intend to do so. Most
importantly, the revised proposal will contain fundamental
changes from our initial draft."
<etc.
----
If you have more questions on this, you could likely contact the two people
shown above on the press release. For instance, I'd be curious (a) what
the exact number is (b) if they've counted them all or there are some left
to count (c) if it included emails and web site comments (which it should,
but just to confirm).
<<This would mean that the protest to the organic rule has been greater
than
anything produced by NRA or anti-abortion movements in response to federal
legislation. These movements are significantly larger than organic
community,
but I suspect the organic community is among the most vocal, socially
active and
politically literate. >>
I think the high level of response says a great deal about the organic
community, and it's great to see it! I remember reading somewhere (I can't
pull it up right now) that this is the most comments the USDA has ever
gotten on a rule (the previous record was 25,000 as I recall!!) and the
second highest for the Federal government. (It didn't say what the highest
was, but I wonder if it was the supplements issue a few years back, which I
think is a very related community!)
There's still work to get done, and many steps to go before we get true
organic nationally, but still it's delightful to see the organic community
step forward in the way that it has. Good job everyone!
Best regards -
Patricia Dines
Community Action Publications
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