Want organic fish for dinner? Too bad, according to the National Organic Program, which recently announced intentions not to regulate seafood, among other products.
June 2004 | Choice News
Organics Under Assault
OUTRAGED ORGANIC foods activists are calling for action against the staff of the National Organic Program, a governmental agency that is supposed to protect the integrity of the organic labeling program. But in a deceitful move, the organic program staff recently unveiled a slew of new directives that instead lowers — and in some cases — completely bastardizes the standards for organic foods.
Among the most appalling directives is that fish and seafood will not be eligible for the organic label. Another move sure to adversely effect small organic dairy farmers is that large organic dairy farms, such as Horizon, will be allowed to purchase conventional heifers and phase them into their organic production — and still maintain the organic label.
“The [National Organic Program] is making a mockery of the organic farmer,” exclaimed an irate woman who, along with others in the organics community packed a meeting room at the Best Western Inn in downtown Chicago last month to testify against the new rulings.
Critics believe that NOP’s director Richard Matthews and his staff intentionally loosened the organic standards to cater to large-scale agribusinesses. They are concerned that he and his staff have set a course to make “organic” meaningless, akin to “all natural” or “whole” — a move that ultimately will jeopardize the livelihood of small organic farmers.
The new rules also threaten consumer safety, says Sissy Bowman, a private organic certifier in Indiana. For instance, the NOP has approved materials for use in “organic” products that haven’t been tested for human safety. “If we don’t know, then it’s not okay,” says Bowman, who along with most people in the organics community want the NOP to remove all such items from the approved list until an advisory board reviews their safety. Others want the NOP to commit to monitor personal care products, dietary supplements, fertilizers, soil amendments and manure — items the NOP plans to skirt.
Perhaps most galling is that the organics program staff issued its new directives without consulting its advisory board, which is illegal. “We’re going to have to mobilize if we’re going to preserve the organic label and organic integrity,” says Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). Direct your protests to the NOP’s director, Richard Matthews, through the OCA’s letter writing campaign, www.organicconsumers.org. — Mandy Burrell
Citigroup Antes Up
AFTER FOUR years of grassroots organizing by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Citigroup has adopted landmark environmental policies that RAN executive director Michael Brune calls “the strongest ... yet of any private financial institution in the world.”
Citigroup agreed to stop funding logging operations in tropical rainforests and to impose strident investment restrictions on oil, gas, logging and mining operations in all endangered ecosystems worldwide. It also has promised to increase investment in renewable energy projects and help its clients reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
RAN followed the money trail that implicated the bank in environmentally destructive policies. It also enlisted Hollywood celebrities Susan Sarandon and Daryl Hannah to make TV ads urging the public to cut up their Citibank cards in protest of bank-funded cutting of forests from the Amazon to Northern California.
It’s good news that powerful corporations like Citigroup are responsive to progressive, citizen-led movements. In fact, in the wake of Citigroup’s decision, other mega-banks have stepped forward. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., for instance, created “encouraging” targets and timelines for enacting environmental policies, according to RAN. “There is a new bottom line on Wall Street, and financial institutions that don’t reconcile with it are destined to become ... fossils,” says Brune.
Meantime, RAN’s victory is tempered by an investigation that republicans on the Ways and Means Committee are launching into RAN’s affairs. In the same vein as the radical right’s recent attacks against non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace (see April 2004, “Ashcroft’s Attack on Greenpeace”), the committee is challenging RAN’s status as a taxpayer supported organization. For more info, www.ran.org. — Allan Hunt Badiner (Note: The author serves on the Board of Directors for RAN.)
Good Beans at the U.N.
“CONSCIOUS” COFFEE drinkers at the United Nations (UN) in New York City can get their fix and still rest easy now that the UN has made the big switch — and we don’t mean to decaf. Cafeterias and coffee shops at the UN have started serving sustainable coffee, certified by the Rainforest Alliance.
“Ultimately, how dollars are spent in the developed world has a major effect on sustainability in the developing world,” says Sean Southey, manager of the UN Development Program’s Equator Initiative. “At the United Nations, we now have a chance to ‘walk the talk’ — to put our dollar behind the issues we talk about.”
Coffee production is, indeed, a major issue worldwide. The coffee industry is the world’s second largest after oil, employing nearly 25 million workers — many of whom do not receive fair pay for their labor. In addition, most beans are grown in the tropics, where chemical-laden conventional farming methods threaten waterways, wildlife and native vegetation. On Rainforest Alliance-certified farms, emphasis is placed on conserving soil, preserving and replanting tropical forests, protecting rivers and natural habitats and compensating workers with fair wages, decent housing, good schools and access to health care. — MB
Illinois’ Dirty Secret
MAJOR COMPANIES nationwide violate the Clean Water Act by dumping pollutants into nearby waterways. However, the sheer number of them in Illinois is worth noting: According to a recent report by the Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), some 57 percent of Illinois’ municipal and industrial facilities exceeded the Act’s permit between January 2002 and June 2003, ranking the state as the 11th worst polluter in the country.
More alarming still is that those numbers were based on self-reporting, according to Illinois PIRG’s legislative advocate John Gaudette, who adds that PIRG collected the information through the Freedom of Information Act. Gaudette, for one, does not believe that those numbers tell the whole story. “It’s hard to trust that the major facilities are providing correct numbers,” says Gaudette, meaning that Illinois streams, rivers and lakes may be even more contaminated than we think. For more info, www.illinoispirg.org. — Renee Edlund
The Rub on Fat Chickens
HIGH-PROTEIN dieters, take note: A report from the National Institutes of Health and the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service found higher-than-expected levels of arsenic in the flesh of broiler chickens.
Why? Two words: fatter chickens. “Arsenic is typically placed into the feed [of conventionally raised chickens] to promote growth,” said Matt Flanagan of Pomona-based Shelton’s Poultry. “Because it irritates the lining of the stomach, they’re always hungry; they eat out of control.”
Organic chickens, by the way, are not fed arsenic compounds. But unfortunately, while most Americans don’t eat organic, they do eat chicken — and a lot of it. The report states that “chicken consumption in the United States has increased steadily from 32 pounds per person in 1966 to 81 pounds per person in 2000.”
What’s more, a person eating 12 ounces of chicken a day would get 15 to 20 percent of the maximum tolerable daily intake of toxic, inorganic arsenic — a maximum that the report suggests is set too high and should be lowered. One reason is that arsenic “hides” in many sources, including drinking water, dust, fumes, seafood, rice, mushrooms — not to mention poultry. Thus, most people ingest arsenic without knowing it, risking overexposure. Indeed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water might cause cancers of the bladder, lungs, skin and other organs.
A lead researcher on the arsenic report suggests that people who know the arsenic in their water is high or who are exposed to arsenic at work should keep tabs on their total dietary arsenic intake. — Danila Oder
Newest in Nuked Foods
FOOD IRRADIATION giant SureBeam declared bankruptcy earlier this year (see March 2004, “Eradicating the Irradiator”), but the problem of irradiation stubbornly persists.
A number of irradiation companies have stepped up in SureBeam’s absence, most notably Florida-based Food Technology Services and Pennsylvania-based CFC Logistics. While Surebeam had patented the use of electronic beams, these companies use Cobalt 60, a nuclear material that raises serious safety concerns for neighbors of irradiation facilities.
The Federation of American Scientists conducted a simulated detonation test of a foot-long Cobalt rod taken from a food irradiation plant and found these startling figures: A real explosion of that Cobalt rod would have resulted in the contamination of 1,000 square kilometers, with a 10 percent risk of death from cancer for residents living inside a 300-city block area for 40 years following the detonation.
Consumer advocacy organization, Public Citizen, is waging a campaign against Cobalt 60. Join their efforts at www.publiccitizen.org. — Dan Cohen
For the Sexy Vegan
WANT JUST the thing for that special vegan dominatrix in your life? Look no further for cruelty-free whips and lubes than Early to Bed, a Chicago sex shop with a vegan-friendly products list.
Rebecca Steinmetz ran her own vegan bakery and, frankly, didn’t pay any mind to the vegan-friendliness of sex toys until she joined the staff at Early to Bed, 5232 N. Sheridan Rd. Then one day a customer inquired about vegan condoms. Turns out that a milk by-product called casein is used in processing latex, meaning that most condoms are technically a no-no for, ahem, hard-and-fast vegans.
The lesson sent Steinmetz on a tour of the place, scouring the labels of every lube, body paint and sensual oil on the shelves, cross-referencing them with a cruelty-free ingredients list compiled by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “A good half of the store just happens to be vegan,” says Steinmetz. She and her co-workers then tracked down a line of casein-free latex condoms called Condomi, and they’ve even created a special display of leather-free restraints and harnesses.
The vegan crusader admits there are a few items she can’t classify, particularly among more pliable products. “It’s the jelly toys,” she sighs. “Jelly is the mystery meat of the sex toy world.”
Shop at www.early2bed.com. — MB
Is He a Democrat?
BRINGING NEW meaning to the phrase “inside joke,” Washington state-based eponymous company, Tom Bihn, which manufactures and sells laptop bags, messenger bags, backpacks and briefcases — attached a unique wash-care label inside some of its Canadian merchandise.
Along with standard washing instructions, the French version of the label reads, when translated: “We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn’t vote for him.”
Bags with the cheeky tags have made their way ‘round the world — including to some American soldiers in Iraq. Company president Tom Bihn, in a feat of diplomatic shading, issued an apology, claiming the tag was referring to him and not President Bush. “I am terribly sorry that this inside joke has been misconstrued to be a slur on any other president,” he says. “The joke is on me, and I think it’s funny.” — DC
Toss the Prozac?
AN ANCIENT yogic breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya has been shown to have a 68 to 73 percent success rate in the treatment of depression, regardless of severity, according to studies published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Patients practicing the breathing technique, which was created by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, experienced relief from depression within three weeks, as determined by standard psychiatric measures. What’s more, after three months, patients remained stable and in remission.
Researchers conclude that the technique is as effective in the treatment of depression as antidepressant drugs or electroconvulsive therapy, yet is free from unwanted side effects, is cost effective and self-empowering.
Columbia University senior psychiatrist and leading depression expert Richard Brown, M.D., recommends the program to both patients and colleagues as an alternative to conventional therapies. “Other techniques are either so difficult to do that people just stop practicing them, or [they] take 30 years or more to show results.”
In the words of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who spoke in Chicago in May, “A few times of [practicing] Sudarshan Kriya fully relaxes you. All the facets of your personality come together to make you one whole person.”
For more info, www.artofliving.org. — Jeffrey Ainis
You Can’t Take It With You
MORE EVIDENCE to suggest it’s best to live in the moment: A 43-year-old northwest Indiana man, James Craig, kicked off 2004 with a $9.7 million lottery win. Then, just months later, he kicked the bucket when his car hit a utility pole during an April rainstorm.
Incidentally, Craig, of Hebron, Ind., is the second man this year to win the Hoosier lottery and die before reveling in his winnings. In January, 73-year-old Carl Atwood of Elwood picked up $57 grand on the “Hoosier Millionaire” TV show. A few hours after wrapping the show, he was struck and killed by a pickup.
Certainly lends meaning to the words of the great philosopher Virgil who said, “Death twitches my ear. ‘Live,’ he says, ‘I am coming.’” — MB
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