Re: USDA Position Paper #1 on Proposed US Federal Organic Regulations verbatem - go to this site:
Sal (sals@rain.org)
Wed, 18 Nov 1998 10:23:58 -0800
Folks have to under stand this is not about public/private partnership any
more. This the about the federalization of organic certification. There
will be no CCOF,Demeter,Florida Organic G&C,NOFA,OGOM,TILTH etc. hand book
there will only be a USDA label and hand book. Certifiers can not do
Decertification because they work for the USDA like it or not and because
they are all to be agents of the USDA. They do the investigation but they
are only agents and have no rights but to report their findings to the USDA.
there will be no higher standards no meeting with IFOAM . there will only be
the USDA so sure the USDA is the only one that can take a licensee away
because that is all there will be. Understand this ! you will not have to
think about the state laws or the Certifiers hand book because there will
only be the USDA. I just want to say once this law is passed your back will
be against the wall . this is the complete federalization and governmental
micro management of the word organic,natural food and anything that may lead
folks to think organic. The certifier,the inspector, the law maker will be
the USDA. They have the first and last word. They are the Judge and the
Jury and the rule maker. They are the slave master and every one will like
it or not be working for the USDA. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
This will not be the organic/consumer coalition path it will be a federal
governmental slave master path. The growers and workers will be once again
be slaves working for the USDA .
You folks that have been working so hard all these many years forget about
it . It did not work as we thought it would. CCOF a grassroots membership
of over 800 farmers and handlers will be handed over to the USDA slave
master like it or not. All this work with IFOAM forget about it. It is
all in the hands of a administrative law judge and the USDA will be calling
all the shoots. CCOF (I can only talk about the certified I am a member of)
can not say you are not organic because you are not following what is in our
hand book because their will be no CCOF handbook . We only wanted a
standard and oversight instead we are going to get a complete take over and
the only way to stop it and the easiest way to stop this is Option 3
Abandon implementation and go to an independent standard and regulatory.
get the USDA/OGC/OMB monkey off our back. This will take the entire
organic community,including our consumers groups,to stick together and work
in concert to abandon the implementation and put certification back in the
hands of independent standards and regulatory system. Give the word organic
back to the people . free the word organic from hard money,soft money,under
the table money and dirty politics. Keep organic clean and give it back to
the people. It has been over 10 years of hard work and as hard as we have
worked it has failed lets us cut our losses and stop this now or we can drag
it on for even more years. I hope that folks use these thinking papers to
start thinking that this has been a failure,lets stop it now and get on with
life.
So feel free to comment on Option 3! The option the USDA did not tell you
about.
Abandon implementation and go to an independent standard and regulatory.
-----Original Message-----
From: Debbie Ortman <safefood@cp.duluth.mn.us>
To: Recipient list suppressed <Recipient list suppressed>
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 1998 7:22 AM
Subject: USDA Position Paper #1 on Proposed US Federal Organic Regulations
verbatem - go to this site:
>http://www.purefood.org/Organic/usdapp1.htm
>
>Debbie
>Debbie Ortman
>National Field Organizer
>Organic Consumers Action
>3547 Haines Rd.
>Duluth, MN 55811
>(218) 726-1443
>(218) 726-1446 Fax
>safefood@cp.duluth.mn.us
>http://www.purefood.org
>Join the Organic Consumers Action in
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