High Standards for Organic Food Urged

WASHINGTON —  Organic farmers on Tuesday urged federal regulators to uphold high standards for production of such food, not to weaken them.

The Organic Trade Assn. joined 130,000 consumers, trade groups and agribusinesses in submitting formal comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture about its proposed rules for labeling food “organic.”

The flood of public comments was a record for any USDA rule-making, officials said. The comment period is scheduled to end Thursday.

About two-thirds of the comments were form letters generated by the Organic Trade Assn.’s grass-roots campaign to oppose the use of irradiation, sewage sludge or genetically modified organisms in organic food.

Musicians Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young were among those who opposed the USDA’s proposed rules.

While the association has lobbied for years to get the USDA to establish labeling standards to clarify what qualifies as organic food, it says the proposed rules ignore many of its recommendations.

“We’re pushing to have a fully implemented federal organic standards program by the end of 1999, but we want it done right,” association head Katherine DiMatteo said.

A spokesman for the USDA said the department could not comment on a pending rule-making.

Although the department initially had promised to finalize organic rules by the end of this year, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman recently said it would spend several months fine-tuning the rules and then give the public another opportunity to comment.