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UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO LAW REVIEW
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Vol. 26 |
primarily political appointments with conflicts of interest in, or
actual hostility toward, the promulgation of meaningful organic standards.
Astoundingly, at the fist NOSB meeting in March 1992, Assistant
Secretary of Agriculture Joann Smith admonished the board to make sure it did not
characterize organic food as safer than regular food, since there is no scientific proof
to that effect. She added that there should be no attempt to make conventional food
"look bad." In fact, she said the OFPA should not even be considered a
"food safety" law.
The leaders of the first introductory meeting never made any serious
effort to define organic farming or even walk through the law provision by provision.42 They did not discuss paradigm shifts and philosophy fundamental
to organic production, nor the over-arching tenet that keeps organic farming
special—its commitment to taking no unnecessary risks with the natural environment.
The NOPP staff at the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) consisted of
mainstream bureaucrats schooled primarily in agricultural economics with no experience in
organic production and no demostrable comprehension of free market supply-demand
economics. Most staff members seemed focused on irrelevant pricing puzzles and persisted
in basing organic "commodity" prices on surplus-based conventional prices. They
referred to organic farming as an "industry" and their networking was usually
based on these special interests. Direct marketing farming was a foreign concept to these
individuals.
There seemed to be a constant and deliberate effort to delay
promulgation. Bureaucratic inertia set in almost immediately and became overwhelming when
the board prepared some final recommendations in June 1994. As of March 1995, still no
rule had appeared in the Federal Register with respect to the standards the board earlier
recommended.
The NOPP staff, NOSB chairman Michael Sligh and the majority of NOSB
members failed to attempt to define terms and truly study the OFPA statute. Perpetual
procrastination on how to address the "National List" process or content
continues to
42. As of February 1995, a number of members of the
NOSB had yet to review the OFPA statue.
43. The "National List" is a listing of
allowed synthetic and prohibited natural substances for organic growers and processors. 7
U.S.C. § 6517(a) (Supp. V 1993). The OFPA provides guidelines for prohibitions and
exemptions. 7 U.S.C. § 6517(c) (Supp. V 1993). For example, substances may be included on
the National List that are otherwise prohibited under the chapter if:
(A) the Secretary determines, in
consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, that the use of such substances--
(i) would not be harmful to
human health or the environment;
(ii) is necessary to the
production or handling of the agricultual product because of the unavailability of wholly
natural substitute products; and
(iii) is consistent with
organci farming and handling;
(B) the substance--
(i) is used in production and
contains an active synthetic ingredient in the following categories: copper and
sulfur compounds.....;
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