OrganicEye News

Chino Valley Ranchers organic laying houses in Idalou, Texas, certified by CCOF Industry Watchdog Files Formal Legal Complaint Against Largest Certifier LA FARGE, WIS. — In the 1970s and 80s, as organic farming grew in the United States and became commercialized,...

Roger Blobaum, maybe the organic movement’s first true expert and ally in Washington, DC "An idea is a powerful thing.” Dear Good Food and Farming Advocates, Roger Blobaum, the eldest of eight children, grew up working on his family’s small Iowa farm starting at the...

Farmhouse set against rolling green hills Donate End-run around the corrupt USDA--Controlling organic certification Hello Organic Farmers and Eaters Who Depend on Honesty and Authenticity,  Who owns the organic label? We all do! We are about to launch our most...

At OrganicEye we mourn the passing of a good friend, Roger Blobaum. I’m not sure who introduced us over 25 years ago, but he quickly became a mentor as Will Fantle and I launched The Cornucopia Institute and I began my career as an “organic industry watchdog.” ...

Young pullets in a certified organic operation — confined without outdoor access or windows. Currently illegal (although condoned by the USDA) but made legal under the new regulations. The Story: A Quick Overview  USDA publishes the new and improved Organic...

Corporate Lobby Circles the Wagons UPDATE: Below please find important follow-up information and documents regarding the recently filed lawsuit (Pratum Farm vs. USDA) alleging illegal, uninspected “organic” imports undercutting US farmers and exposing consumers to...

Lawsuit Alleges Violation of Federal Law and a Green Light for Fraud US Family Farmers Competitively Damaged, Consumers Deceived STORY IN A (HAZEL)NUTSHELL: Under federal law all organic farms must be inspected on an annual basis, as per the congressional mandate in...

Unreviewed synthetic chemicals in organic farming? Commercial interests deciding what gets tested for pesticide residues? Organic vegetables grown in soil laced with microplastics? Those are just a few of the issues up for debate when the National Organic Standards...

Industry Watchdog Calls for Public Meetings on the Use of Genetically Engineered Vaccines The Story: A Quick Overview One of the most prominent differentials between conventional and organic food is the latter’s strict prohibition on genetically modified farm inputs...

Mandated Safety Review of Materials/Ingredients Used in Organics Being Conducted by USDA Corporate Appointees and Agribusiness-Funded “Nonprofit” The Story: A Quick Overview Misinformation on social media concerning Apeel™, a coating used on organic fruits and...

Fagundes Brothers Dairy: Allowed to continue to operate by the USDA and the nation's largest organic certifier, CCOF, after formal legal complaint filed by author. Hard-working Dairy Farmers Circling the Drain If you are a stockholder in Tyson, Perdue, Campbell’s,...

USDA National Organic Standards Board meeting, Atlanta, Georgia — April 2023 Public Comments (virtual via Zoom) OrganicEye’s critique of the appointments of NOSB members is focused on the USDA’s betrayal of the intent of Congress to create a highly-diversified body of...

Founder of the Organic Consumers Association Ronnie has been a friend, colleague, and ally for over 30 years. I met him in the early 1990s when we collaborated along with others in fighting Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (BGH). He represented...

Updated White Paper Profiles Lobbyist-Affiliated Appointees to National Organic Standards Board THE STORY: A QUICK OVERVIEW• As giant agribusinesses consolidated their marketplace power in organics, corporate lobbyists have achieved dominance in rulemaking,...

Source: Austin Valley (used under Creative Commons licensing) Fundamentally Flawed: Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 The quick take:• The new OrganicEye white paper challenges the legitimacy of encouraging shoppers to purchase...

The Unqualified Applause for Updated Organic Regulations Stock-holm syn-drome noun: feelings of trust or affection felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage taking by a victim towards a captor. The big news in the organic industry in mid-January was the publication...

The Applegate Farms brand, now owned by agribusiness giant Hormel, asserts there are "no nitrates or nitrites added*" on their conventional and organic labels although their ingredient lists contain "cultured celery juice powder." If you follow the minute asterisk...

A henhouse currently certified under USDA “organic” standards Dear Organic Community Stakeholder: If you haven’t signed the proxy letter and mailed it back, please do! If you have signed the proxy letter, please forward this email to your contacts. They respect your...

The meeting kicked off today with deliberations by the Handling Subcommittee. After rejecting one new petition for a synthetic material, apparently based on essentiality, they cruised through the balance of Sunset materials mostly on autopilot. One exception was ion...

OrganicEye Board President, and pioneering Maine organic farmer, Jim Gerritsen making one of his numerous appearances testifying at a previous NOSB meeting. [Spoiler alert: read to the bottom of this report for the continuing organic regulatory theater.] After...

After listening to public testimony for two days last week, the National Organic Standards Board commenced their fall meeting in Sacramento bright and early this morning (Tuesday, October 25). NOSB Director Dr. Jennifer Tucker presented the usual program update and...

Mark Kastel testifying at the Fall 2022 NOSB meeting in Washington via Zoom from his La Farge, Wisconsin office. Who’s drinking the organic Kool-Aid served up by corporate lobbyists? Thank you, Mr. Chairman, My name is Mark Kastel. I am the Executive Director of...

USDA Will Permanently Institutionalize Factory Conditions for Organic Poultry La Farge, Wis. – For most of the last decade and a half, stakeholders in the organic industry have alleged that the largest egg companies in the United States have been operating mammoth...

Milk Versus Milk Analogues Mark Kastel's latest editorial was published on the homepage of Food Tank, an interesting site that provides diverse perspectives across many food systems...

Demanding Reform of the USDA Organic Program For many of us involved in lobbying Congress to pass the Organic Food Production Act in 1990, our motivation was to create a level playing field with strictly enforced regulations that would assure shoppers they were...

Updated White Paper Profiles Lobbyist-Affiliated Appointees to National Organic Standards Board La Farge, Wis. — Continuing a trend well established by prior Republican and Democratic administrations, two of the four newest appointees to the National Organic Standards...

USDA Failures Necessitate Reinventing the Federal Certification Program LA FARGE, Wis. — OrganicEye, a public interest group best known as one of the country’s preeminent organic industry watchdogs, has announced its move from the “sausage making capital of the...

Join OrganicEye Founder Mark Kastel at the 2022 Real Organic Project Symposium, a virtual series of interviews with well-respected organic farmers, scientists, activists, and more. Tickets are sliding scale; register here: bit.ly/3faQFTa

Beyond Pesticides/OrganicEye Steps in as USDA Fails to Take Action Washington, DC -- Beyond Pesticides filed another lawsuit in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia against a company that markets CBD (cannabidiol) products identified with false or misleading...

New White Paper Profiles Lobbyist-Affiliated Appointees to National Organic Standards Board Washington, DC — Continuing a trend well established by prior Republican and Democratic administrations, four of the five newest appointees to the National Organic...

UPDATE: Day 2 The operative term for testimony on Day Two, as usual, is “conflict of interest” (COI). As the saying goes, follow the money. First, we have certifiers, paid for by their “clients,” lobbying for the use of certain materials, many of them controversial. I...

Beyond Pesticides/OrganicEye Steps in as USDA Fails to Take Action Washington, DC — Beyond Pesticides and its investigative arm, OrganicEye, filed suit in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia against two companies that market CBD (cannabidiol) products...

August 31 2020FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Mark A. Kastel, 608-625-2042 / mkastel@organiceye.org USDA Asked to Crackdown on Misrepresentation in Organic Marketing Case Study: CBD products and the “Wild West” of fraudulent labelsTHE STORY: A QUICK OVERVIEW Fraudulent...