ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

Radio New Zealand : News : National : Golf course next to organic farm ordered to close

The owners of the Organic Farm Company and BioFarm Products, James and Catherine Tait-Jamieson, took legal action against Brookfields Park Golf Club in 2002.

Mr Tait-Jamieson says since he filed court proceedings, 20,000 golf balls have been picked up from the 30 hectares of his property near the golf course.

"All inputs to an organic farm must be approved, and golf balls are not an approved input. The effect was that we couldn't make hay or silage in the paddocks surrounding the golf course."

He says he is relieved that the farm's future organic rating will now be safe.

via www.radionz.co.nz

Organic Product Consumer Base Holds Steady -FoodManufacturing.com

SHELTON, Conn.(PRNewswire) -- For the third straight year, the percentage of US consumers purchasing Organic products has held steady in the 38-39% range, reports Shelton, CT-based marketing research and consulting company, TABS Group, Inc. (www.tabsgroup.com). While there has been no growth in the buyer count of Organic products since last year, there was a considerable shift in outlet patterns towards Mass Market and away from Natural Foods.

"We still see many fallacious reports that the number of consumers purchasing Organic products is growing; our research does not support that conclusion. The annual incidence of these products has gone from 38.4% to 38.0% to 38.6% from 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively," stated TABS Group, Inc. President and Founder, Dr. Kurt Jetta. "What is very interesting, however, is that there were big shifts in the Outlet where consumers report that they purchase these products most often. The big winners were Traditional Grocers (41.0% to 44.1%) and Target (1.8% to 4.1%), while the losers were Wal-Mart (18.6% to 12.4%), Trader Joe's (11.5% to 10.7%) and Other Natural Foods (6.2% to 4.6%). Total Natural Foods fell from being the most preferred outlet by 26.8% in 2009 to 24.4% in January 2011, a 9% drop."

http://www.foodmanufacturing.com/scripts/ShowPR~RID~18971.asp

 

U.S. to Ensure Spot Tests of Organic Foods - NYTimes.com

The Department of Agriculture said on Friday that it would begin enforcing rules requiring the spot testing of organically grown foods for traces of pesticides, after an auditor exposed major gaps in federal oversight of the organic food industry.

via www.nytimes.com

This article is at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/business/20organic.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1269080792-vJUiPOd0DGgWmFGyGKOtEA.

You should read the article-the failure of the government adequately to enforce the certification standards of the National Organics Program leads the government (and organic "purist" groups) to look for more bureacracy and more funding (we're out of money guys!) rather than to question whether the government approach to regulating everything that moves (or grows) is worthwhile in the first place.

The Food & Drug Adminstration has just (March 8, 2010) come out with a statement that "organic" produce is not necessarily safer than produce with out such designation:

"Are cosmetics made with “organic” ingredients safer for consumers than those made with ingredients from other sources?

"No. An ingredient’s source does not determine its safety. For example, many plants, whether or not they are organically grown, contain substances that may be toxic or allergenic. For more on this subject, see FDA Poisonous Plant Database7. Under the FD&C Act, all cosmetic products and ingredients are subject to the same safety requirement: They must be safe for consumers under labeled or customary conditions of use (FD&C Act, section 601(a). Companies and individuals who market cosmetics have a legal responsibility to ensure that their products and ingredients are safe for the intended use."

See http://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/ProductandIngredientSafety/ProductInformation/ucm203078.htm

So going "organic" is a lifestyle choice, not a health and safety choice. To appease "organic" activitsts, however, even at this time of severe fiscal crisis, the Obama Adminstration nevertheless proposses to raise the NOP's budget from $6.9 million to $10 million and nearly double the NOP's staff from 16 to 31.

The flaws in this NOP enforcement expansion are multiple-

The burearacy and inefficiency of government has prevented the program from working well in the first place.

Second, even if the program could be made to work effectively to enforce the goal of ensuring the government's "organic" strandard is met, one would need staff and a budget many times the size of the expansions being proposed.

Third, with a $1.6 trillion federal deficit and $12 trillion in national debt, this would hardly be the time to propsoe such an expansion for a lifestyle--as opposed to health and safety--program.

The mind of man, which attempts to regulate everything out of some primordial desire to impose order even where none is required, is on full display here.

Is Organic Food Really Better For The Environment? | The Chic Ecologist

Is Organic Food Really Better For The Environment?

Buzz up!Buzz up!

Flikr User: Dano

I eat a lot of organic food. In fact, about 80% of the food that goes into my body is organic. I cannot tell you how many times I get teased about eating “dirt” from many of my friends, and even my family. A friend recently quizzed me about my reasons for eating organic. I claimed that one of the reasons I opt for organic food is for environmental reasons and my friend gave me the most flabbergasted look on the planet. He flat out refused to believe that organic food is more environmentally sound than “normal” food. This set me on a quest to defend my position that organic food is better for the env

via www.thechicecologist.com

from "The Chic Ecologist" http://www.thechicecologist.com/2010/03/is-organic-food-really-better-for-the-environment/

Well, that's one perspective. Even assuming the author's perspective is valid, query whether this justifies the increasing federal intervention into the labeling of "organic" products? Such increased regulation arguably is good for the "big" organic growers but is increasingly a barrier to entry for the small farmer.