OrganicEye News

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...

Featured by Public Relations Firm Compass Natural in Their Podcast, Coffee Talk Part of our job at OrganicEye is acting, as our board Secretary-Treasurer, Will Fantle, likes to say, as an “organic truth squad.” We report to industry stakeholders, farmers, ethical...

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

In the midst of recalls of romaine lettuce contaminated with a pathogenic strain of E. coli, states and counties across the country are calling for a moratorium on large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

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...

On Monday, November 23, Mark Kastel, OrganicEye Director, interviewed Terry Shistar, PhD, Beyond Pesticides board member and chief scientific advisor at OrganicEye, about the potential impacts of sanitizers used in facilities manufacturing organic foods. They...

Please watch the OrganicEye staff recap the Fall 2020 NOSB meetings Tune in to hear veteran OrganicEye staff recap the daily proceedings of the Fall 2020 USDA National Organic Standards Board meeting. The NOSB debated and decided important issues, including whether...

Reinforcing Fundamental Responsibilities of NOSB Members at a Time of Great Corporate Influence The following are transcripts of oral testimony presented by OrganicEye leadership before the National Organic Standards Board on Tuesday, October 20, 2020. The NOSB...

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...

Ninety-five food, labor, and environmental organizations, including OrganicEye, are calling for swift action to ensure workers’ and communities’ health and safety. HEAL Food Alliance and Food Chain Workers Alliance are proud to unite with our allies in...

The OrganicEye leadership team, Mark Kastel, Jay Feldman, and Dr. Terry Shistar, all testified on day one of USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (virtual) meeting on April 21, 2020. The biannual meeting was originally scheduled to take place just outside of Washington, DC during the last week of the month.

In the midst of recalls of romaine lettuce contaminated with a pathogenic strain of E. coli, states and counties across the country are calling for a moratorium on large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

In the midst of recalls of romaine lettuce contaminated with a pathogenic strain of E. coli, states and counties across the country are calling for a moratorium on large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Comment Period Closes December 2 Tell the USDA – No Factory Farms / No Conventional Cattle Producing Organic Milk Tell the USDA to follow the will of Congress and close its own loophole. The National Organic Program should enforce both the spirit and letter...

Stay tuned to https://www.facebook.com/organiceye.org/ for live updates from NOSB Pittsburgh October 23-25. Day 1 Posted by OrganicEye on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 Day 2 Posted by OrganicEye on Thursday, October 24, 2019

USDA Panel Votes in Pittsburgh on the Future of Nitrates in Meat SIGN THE PETITION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mark A. Kastel, 608-625-2042 / mkastel@organiceye.orgTerry Shistar, 202-543-5450 / tshistar@beyondpesticides.org WASHINGTON, DC — In the...

WASHINGTON, DC — Beyond Pesticides, a public interest organization founded to advocate for healthy air, water, land, and food by eliminating the use of toxic pesticides, and advance healthy practices, has announced the formation of an investigative arm, OrganicEye. The new watchdog agency will focus on defending the “time-honored philosophy and legal definition of organic farming and food production” from USDA’s systemic failure to protect the interests of organic farmers, ethical businesses, and consumers.

We are all organic watchdogs! Become an OrganicEye agent by calling 844-EYE-TIPS

  Keeping Organic Strong: NOSB Archives   NOSB Meetings: Positions on issues and voting results  Fall 2020 meeting details Spring 2020 key issues Fall 2019 key issues Spring 2019 key issues Fall 2018 key issues Spring 2018 key issues Fall 2017 key issues Spring...

The whole picture Organic food contributes to better health through reduced pesticide exposure for all and increased nutritional quality. In order to understand the importance of eating organic food from the perspective of toxic pesticide contamination, we need to...