Consumers of Organic Food--Good News!

Major Movements Afoot to Clarify

Differences Between "Organic" and "Natural"

 

Two major organizations--independently--have just announced measures to stem the marketplace confusion facing consumers seeking truly "organic food."

 

 

March 6, 2013--The Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) and Organic Voices (www.organicvoices.com) announced that they will "collaborate to highlight the benefits of organic food and advance the fight for labeling food that contains genetically engineered ingredients."

 

March 7, 2013--The million-strong Organic Consumers Association (www.organicconsumers.org) has just announced that "along with allies in the organic and natural health community" it will launch a nationwide campaign to be called the Organic Retail and Consumer Alliance (ORCA).  The alliance includes public interest groups, food producers, retailers, co-ops, natural food stores, farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), buying clubs, and wholesalers.  They aim to aggressively promote organic food and products and "expose and eliminate the misleading practice of 'natural' labeling and marketing that has slowed the growth of America's $30-billion dollar organic sector."

 

Lack of Clearly Understood Labeling Confuses Consumers

Since 2011, Organic Voices has managed the Just Label It campaign (http://justlabelit.org), a national coalition "to persuade the federal Food and Drug Administration to require labeling of
GE foods."

 

According to Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), "Routine mislabeling and marketing has confused millions of U.S. consumers, and enabled the so-called 'natural' foods and products sector to grow into a $60-billion dollar a year powerhouse, garnering twice as many sales in 2012 as certified organic products.

 

. . . This is outrageous,"says Cummins, "given that organic food and products, by law and by third-party certification, are produced  without the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, animal drugs, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), irradiation, nanoparticles, or sewage sludge, whereas so-called 'natural' products are unregulated."