[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 24, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               OPPOSING THE USDA'S ORGANIC LABEL STANDARD

  (Mr. METCALF asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, 8 years ago it became apparent that 
producers of organic foods were having a marketing problem. The public 
was confused about what organic meant. The label ``organic food'' was 
being cheapened by the public confusion.
  So, in 1990 the Congress passed a law to correct this problem, 
organic Foods Production Act, a single set of criteria by which food 
products could be labeled as organic. However, what the USDA is 
proposing is both overreaching and inadequate.
  For example, the USDA proposal would allow irradiated foods. Further, 
the proposal would permit genetically engineered ingredients. It would 
permit vegetable ingredients where the plants had been fertilized with 
municipal wastes.
  I think we need to send this agency, our U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, out to talk with consumers. They need to find out what 
organic means to the consumer now, and it does not mean radiated, 
engineered or sludge-fertilized food.

                              {time}  1415

  I am emphatically opposed to these proposed standards.

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