Newsletters: September - October 2007

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Safeguarding Organic Standards

Natural Times-September/October 2007

By Crystal Wakoa

September is National Organic Month. What better way to honor this month than to support the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), the organization that advocates for you, and protects the organic standards you rely on and maybe even take for granted. The OCA, at 850,000 members strong and growing, is the premier organization in the U.S. committed to promoting the interests of 50 million organic consumers like you and me.

Laws regulating organic foods are not unlike laws designed to protect the environment-they make enormous good sense, are supported by the majority of citizens, and are under constant attack by large corporations for short-term, short-sighted economic gain.

The OCA makes it easy to keep up with the latest news regarding the quality of your food, take legislative action, and educate yourself in ways that assist you in making informed choices that affect your family's health and our planet's well-being. Despite the fact that I am not enamored of online news and prefer just about any activity to sitting in front of a computer, I have been impressed with the quick and easy digestibility of OCA's online newsletter, Organic Bytes. Simply google the Organic Consumers Association and sign up for the free newsletter. If you care about your food, you will thank yourself one hundred times over for making this small effort.

Some of the issues the OCA tackles include protecting food irradiation labeling, preventing sneak attacks on organic standards, stopping the Food and Drug Administration from approving food from cloned animals, organizing a nationwide boycott against corporations that have eroded organic standards, advocating for the labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients, and tightening the language of the 2007 Farm Bill toward sustainability rather than greater corporate welfare. Giant food corporations, biotechnology companies and industry-friendly government agencies have consistently tried to undermine organic standards and get the United States Department of Agriculture to allow conventional chemical-intensive and factory farm practices on organic farms. At every turn, the OCA is on the front line, and with its 850,000 member muscle, stands a chance at helping food justice and environmental sustainability prevail over corporate greed.

All food and beverage companies, big and small, respond to their economic bottom lines. You send a message to a food company every time you buy (or don't buy) its products, shaping that company's commitment to upholding and protecting (or not) our precious organic standards. Subscribing to the OCA's Organic Bytes online newsletter is an easy way to become a more informed consumer.