USDA may relax standards for organic foods

With the "USDA organic" seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch calls its Wild Hop Lager "the perfect organic experience." But many beer drinkers may not know that Anheuser-Busch has the organic blessing from federal regulators even though Wild Hop Lager uses hops grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides. A deadline of midnight on June 8 to come up with a new list of nonorganic ingredients allowed in USDA-certified organic products passed without action from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), leaving uncertain whether some foods currently labeled "USDA organic" would continue to be produced. The agency proposed a list of 38 nonorganic ingredients that will be permitted in organic foods. Because of the broad uses of these ingredients–as colorings and flavorings, for example–almost any type of manufactured organic food could be affected, including cereal, sausage, bread and beer. Organic food advocates have fought to block approval of some or all of the proposed ingredients, saying consumers would be misled. "This proposal is blatant catering to powerful industry players who want the benefits of labeling their products 'USDA organic' without doing the work to source organic materials," said Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Assn. of Finland, Minn., a nonprofit group that boasts 850,000 A federal judge had given the USDA until midnight on June 8 to name the nonorganic ingredients it would allow in organic foods, but the agency did not release its final list by the end of the day.