Thursday, April 23, 1998

Singers join campaign to rewrite organic food rules

By CURT ANDERSON / AP Farm Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Singers Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp added their voices Wednesday to those of thousands of people urging the Agriculture Department not to permit such practices as irradiation or genetic engineering in organic foods.

The three entertainers, who are affiliated with the Farm Aid group that supports small farms, are among more than 115,000 people who have written, faxed or e-mailed comments about USDA's proposed organic rules.

"We have received more comments on this rule than on any rule in the history of the Department of Agriculture in modern times," said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.

The letters from Nelson, Young and Mellencamp focused on the main reasons for the uproar: The department left open the possibility that it would let products be labeled as organic even if they were genetically altered, irradiated to kill microbes or grown on land fertilized with human waste sludge.

Organic producers also object to provisions that could allow livestock to be fed a certain percentage of non-organic feed, permit use of some synthetic pesticides and antibiotics and let animals be confined indoors.

"Unfortunately, the proposed rule would violate the entire purpose of labeling food organic both in the United States and internationally," Nelson wrote.

Added Mellencamp: "The proposed rule erodes the trust consumers have developed in the organic label."

The rules grew out of a 1990 law intended to promote marketing of organics nationwide by implementing the first coast-to-coast standards. They would replace a hodgepodge of state and private certification programs that sometimes differ on their definition of organic.

But large food corporations -- watching organic sales soar 20 percent a year to almost $3.5 billion last year -- are entering the market. Many don't want some modern farm and processing practices ruled non-organic, fearing their conventional products could suffer at home and abroad.

One of the few companies to comment on the rules, biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. of St. Louis, is seeking a three-year delay in USDA action on whether genetically altered plants fit the organics definition.

Farmers expect to plant 20 million acres of Monsanto's pesticide-resistant soybeans this year and the company has been trying to open organic-conscious foreign markets to its transgenic crops.

Waiting three years, Monsanto wrote, would allow for "a more informed decision ... as to whether and how to make plants improved through biotechnology eligible for organic certification."

To organic proponents, fudging the definition for a corporation like Monsanto runs against the grassroots nature of the business.

"The proposed rule is an assault on organic family farms, a crucial part of American agriculture that deserves to be supported and encouraged, not destroyed," Young wrote.

Glickman said he would try to balance the interests of conventional and organic agriculture while adding: "We are not going to propose rules that the industry, which requested the rules, would find objectionable."