Mark Kastel Testimony to NOSB

We are based in La Farge, Wisconsin.

“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
— Former Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Organic started as a “farmer movement.”

Organics is now an industry virtually without farmers.

• The vast majority of organic milk in this country comes from Western CAFOs, milking as many as 10,000 animals, managing 20,000 total. The largest private equity-owned U.S. producer is importing tremendous quantities of soy meal from Africa.
• Almost all eggs on the market come from CAFOs, some with over 100,000 birds in a building and one million on a single “farm.”
• Most organic beef is coming from Uruguay, Australia, or elsewhere — not from U.S. farmers and ranchers and not produced with U.S. grain.
• Those colorful hydroponic peppers that you see in the store are commonly coming from Canada or Holland, where hydroponics is not — for good reason — legally allowed to be labeled as organic.

All that’s not organic!

How did this happen? The movement was hijacked by corporate agribusiness and facilitated through regulatory capture by the USDA and some of the largest certifiers.

The NOSB was designed as a buffer between organic farmers and the business lobby.

Despite the intent of Congress to have a diverse and independent board, seats are now commonly held by members who have a relationship with the industry’s leading lobby group. [These are special interests, not necessarily the interests of working family farmers or eaters/ consumers.]

I wish I were making this up.

What if the Secretary again appointed a new farmer-member, perfect for a handler position, who owns an industrial-scale livestock processing organization and contracts with farmers?

Would it be legal to appoint a public interest/consumer representative who serves as a lobbyist for an industry trade group?

[Because that’s what just happened.]

That’s not what Congress intended. [These new members aren’t responsible, but NOP management and USDA political appointees are.]

Let’s start correcting that in this meeting.

When a corporate lobbyist bellies up to the microphone, please don’t just have them identify the name of their firm. Ask them who their current or former clients are who have an interest in the issue they are testifying about.

And I’ve said this before: certifiers have no business appearing before this panel as lobbyists on behalf of their “clients.” They should not shelter these organizations from being on the record in support, as an example, of a potential carcinogen like carrageenan. [They should be acting as independent arbiters, enforcing federal law as agents of the USDA as Congress had intended.]

Organic stakeholders and the public have a right to know.

And you, as the decision makers, should know who is trying to influence you.

Not only are certifiers commenting on carrageenan, but the trade group representing them [the Accredited Certifiers Association (ACA)] is commenting!

And it’s a little-known fact that the largest funder of the trade lobby group representing certifiers, at least as of a few years ago, was the NOP [the USDA National Organic Program] — the regulatory agency Congress created specifically to oversee the certifier members of the trade group.

That just doesn’t pass the smell test. What a democracy.

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about the violation of the spirit and letter of federal laws governing organics, either now, in public, or please feel free to contact us in confidence.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Lightly edited for clarity.