Los Angeles Times, June  2007

USDA may relax standards for organic foods

The agency is considering a list of 38 nonorganic spices, colorings
and other ingredients that would be allowed in products it deems
'organic.'

By Scott J. Wilson
Times Staff Writer

June 9, 2007

With the "USDA organic" seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch
calls its Wild Hop Lager "the perfect organic experience."

"In today's world of artificial flavors, preservatives and factory
farming, knowing what goes into what you eat and drink can just about
drive you crazy," the Wild Hop website says. "That's why we have
decided to go back to basics and do things the way they were meant to
be … naturally."

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 Friday to come up with a new list of nonorganic
ingredients allowed in USDA-certified organic products passed without
action from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, leaving uncertain
whether some foods currently labeled "USDA organic" would continue to
be produced.

The agency is considering 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 members.

USDA spokeswoman Joan Shaffer declined to comment on the plan.

Food manufacturers said this week that they were hoping the agency
would approve the rules by Friday to continue labeling their products
as organic.

A federal judge had given the USDA until midnight Friday 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.

"They probably don't know what to do" Cummins said. "On the other
hand, it's hard to believe they're going to make people change their
labels, although that's what they should do."

Demand for organic food in the U.S. is booming as consumers seek
products that are more healthful and friendlier to the environment.
Sales have more than doubled in the last five years, reaching $16.9
billion last year, according to the Organic Trade Assn. in Greenfield,
Mass., which represents small and large food producers.

But with big companies entering what was formerly a mom-and-pop
industry, new questions have arisen about what exactly goes into
organic food. For food to be called organic, it must be grown without
chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Animals must be raised without
antibiotics and growth hormones and given some access to the outdoors.

Many nonorganic ingredients, including hops, are already being used in
organic products, thanks to a USDA interpretation of the Organic Foods
Protection Act of 1990. In 2005, a federal judge disagreed with how the
USDA was applying the law and gave the agency two years to revise its
rules.

Organic food supporters had hoped that the USDA would allow only a
small number of substances, but were dismayed last month when the
agency released the proposed list of 38 ingredients.

"Adding 38 new ingredients is not just a concession by the USDA, it is
a major blow to the organic movement in the U.S. because it would erode
consumer confidence in organic standards," said Carl Chamberlain, a
research assistant with the Pesticide Education Project in Raleigh,
N.C.

In addition to hops, the list includes 19 food colorings, two
starches, casings for sausages and hot dogs, fish oil, chipotle chili
pepper, gelatin and a host of obscure ingredients (one, for instance,
is a "bulking agent" and sweetener with the tongue-twisting name of
fructooligosaccharides).

Under the agency's proposal, as much as 5% of a food product could be
made with these ingredients and still get the "USDA organic" seal.
Hops, though a major component of beer's flavor, are less than 5% of
the final product because the beverage is mostly water.

Sales of organic beer, though still a small portion of total beer
sales, have been growing even faster than overall organic food sales.
They reached $19 million in 2005, a 40% increase over the previous year
(2006 figures are not yet available).

Trying to get a share of the market for green products, Anheuser-Busch
introduced two organic beers in September, and soon pitched them in
fliers to wholesalers.

"Environmentally conscious consumers are looking for certified organic
products, including beer, the fastest-growing organic beverage," the
pitch said. "Capitalize on this growing market with Wild Hop Lager and
Stone Mill Pale Ale."

But while the two beers use 100% organic barley malt, less than 10% of
the hops they use is organic. Hops are conelike flowers that grow on
vines and impart a bitter taste on beer to offset the sweetness of
malts.

Anheuser-Busch said it simply couldn't find enough organic hops.

"There currently is only a small supply of organically grown hops
available for purchase by brewers, and we purchased all we could for
brewing these beers," said Doug Muhleman, vice president of brewing
operations for Anheuser-Busch Inc.

But that argument doesn't wash with Russell Klisch, owner of
Milwaukee's Lakefront Brewery, which has been producing beer with 100%
organic hops since 1996.

"If we can do it, we think Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest beer
producer with virtually unlimited resources, should be able to follow
our example," he said.

Klisch said there were enough organic hops to satisfy 90% of the
current organic beer demand in the U.S., but some brewers were put off
by their higher price.

There are no organic hops commercially grown in the U.S.; most come
from New Zealand, Britain and Germany. But Klisch has recently
contracted with two Wisconsin farmers to grow some on their land. He
doesn't understand why large brewers can't do the same.

"You're telling me that Anheuser-Busch can't find a little plot of
ground somewhere to grow organic hops?" he said.

In addition to hops, two other items on the USDA list have attracted
particular attention: casings for sausages and hot dogs, and fish oil.

Casings are the intestines of cows, pigs or sheep, which have been
used for centuries to wrap meat into sausages and frankfurters.

Although the casings are a tiny portion of the overall sausage,
organic purists object to eating anything from animals that are raised
on conventional farms, where livestock may be housed in tight quarters
and given antibiotics and growth hormones. Further, they note that the
USDA's food safety division has identified cow intestines as a possible
source of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

But the USDA has already banned part of the cow's small intestines for
human consumption because of the risk of mad cow disease. Barbara
Negron, president of the North American Natural Casing Assn. in New
York, said casings were safe to eat.

"It's a very safe, clean and natural product," she said. "It's not an
organic product. It's a natural product."

It's very difficult to maintain pure organic eating habits, Negron
added, "unless you want to lock yourself up and only raise your own
food."

Fish oil's presence on the USDA list has drawn objections because it
could carry high levels of heavy metals and other contaminants, said
Jim Riddle, a former member of the National Organic Standards Board.
But fish oil producers said such contaminants could be screened out
through proper processing.

The USDA rules come with what appears to be an important consumer
protection: Manufacturers can use nonorganic ingredients only if
organic versions are not "commercially available."

But food makers have found a way around this barrier, in part because
the USDA doesn't enforce the rule directly. Instead, it depends on its
certifying agents — 96 licensed organizations in the U.S. and overseas
— to decide for themselves what it means for a product to be available
in organic form.

Despite years of discussion, the USDA has yet to provide certifiers
with standardized guidelines for enforcing this rule.

"There is no effective mechanism for identifying a lack of organic
ingredients," complained executives of Pennsylvania Certified Organic,
a nonprofit certifying agent, in a letter to the USDA. "It is a very
challenging task to 'prove a negative' regarding the organic supply."

Large companies have a better chance of winning approval to use
nonorganic ingredients because the amount they demand can exceed the
small supply of organic equivalents, said Craig Minowa, environmental
scientist for the Organic Consumers Assn.

scott.wilson@latimes.com