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    The OFPA is a complex yet elegant statute.14 In many instances, the law is open to multiple interpretations. However, congressional conference reports help to clarify legislative intent and will be referenced throughout this article.15

A.    The State of "Alternative" Agriculture at the Time of the OFPA

    The OFPA was framed and drafted as American agriculture was recovering from the alar 16 fiasco, which resulted in the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) successfully causing alar to be removed from the market in 1989. "Alternative" products were in great demand, especially apples grown without alar and other chemicals.17 Farmers, many of whom had never considered the issue surrounding organic standards or decisions to farm with less inputs, suddenly saw opportunities to exploit a "grown without" marketplace preference.18
   Unfortunately, there were many stakeholders in this market, all benefiting without uniform standards in a jungle of conflicting markets replete with fraudulent, deceptive, and misleading claims.19 Indeed, "organic" was on a fast track to the black market and underground trafficing. No doubt, there were some true organic producers, adhering to their own stringent set of original organic principles.20

14.    See generally Pub. L. No. 101-624, 104 Stat. 359 (codified at 7 U.S.C.§ 6501 (1990)).
15.    See S. REP. NO. 357, 101^st Cong., 2d Sess. 289 (1990), reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4656,4943 (explaining the purpose of the OFPA as regulating the production, marketing and labeling of organic food).
16.    Alar is a synthetic growth promotant. See Marian Burros, U.S. to Cut Back Pesticide Use in Nation’s Food, N.Y. TIMES, June 27, 1993; Lindsay Totten, What Does ’Organic’ Mean? Scientists Seeking an Answer, PITTSBURGH PRESS, June 6, 1990; Uniroyal to Halt Alar Sales in U.S. But Not Abroad,
N.Y. Times, June 3, 1989.
17.    See generally James Stephen Carpenter, Farm Chemicals, Soil Erosion, and Sustainable Agriculture, 13 STAN ENVTL. L.J. 190 (1994) (discussing alternatives to chemical farming).
18.    Used in this article the phrase "grown without," refers to growing without the use of certain chemicals or inputs.
19.    Traupman, suprs note 11, at 40 (addressing the need for labeling that distinguishes between phony organic growing and true organic production).
   See Buchsbaum & Co. v. FTC, 153 F.2d 85, 88 (7yh Cir. 1946) (setting aside the FTC’s injunction against the petitioner for unfair and deceptive acts stemming from the petitioner falsely representing that it products were made of glass instead of a chemically manufactured plastic-like material); Cartt v. Superior Court, 124 Cal. Rptr 376 (Ct. App. 1975) (addressing a class action suit against an oil company that alleged class members were induced by false environmental advertising to purchase gasoline from the defendant at five cents more per gallon than the market price). See generally Thomas C. Downs, "Environmentally Friendly" Product Advertising: Its Future Requires a New Regulatory Authority, 42 AM. U. L. REV. 155 (1992) (discussing environmental marketing and how it is often deceptive, misleading and confusing to the consumer).
20.    See S. REP. NO. 357, 101^st Cong., 2d Sess. 289, 292 (1990), reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4656, 4943, 4946 (stating that organic food is "produced using sustainable production methods thatrely primarily on natural materials," but also noting that "[o]rganically produced food defies simple definition"); H.R.

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