Action
Alert
Message to Obama: Please Fix
the USDA's Organic Mess
Overhaul of Management and Culture
Needed
Please urge President Obama and new USDA
Secretary Tom Vilsack to take immediate action to repair the USDA's
increasingly dysfunctional National Organic Program (NOP).
Suspect
imports of grains, nuts, and
vegetables from China and other countries, questionable organic milk,
beef, and eggs from
giant factory
farms, and the erosion of
opportunity for family farmers are plaguing the organic
sector.
Make your voice
heard by downloading the proxy-letter from
The Cornucopia Institute's web site
(click here).
We will hand deliver your letter to both Mr. Obama and Secretary
Vilsack.
The Cornucopia Institute, a national organic watchdog representing family
famers, has sent a formal letter and briefing paper (click here)
to the President and USDA Secretary
specifically asking that they take "a very strong and proactive
posture in turning around management at the
National Organic
Program," which they described as
being "Katrina-ed"
by the Bush administration.
"The stewardship of the organic program at the USDA has been an absolute
abomination," said Mark A. Kastel, Cornucopia's senior farm policy
analyst. "It was not just management by neglect - it was an
intentional monkeywrenching of the Department's oversight of the
industry."
In the last several years, audits prepared by the American National
Standards Institute and the Inspector General's office have blasted the
NOP for failing to ensure that independent certification agencies, which
verify organic farming and production practices, are competent and
properly performing their jobs.
During the Bush administration, USDA political appointees significantly
softened penalties for organic lawbreakers, overruling stiff
enforcement actions recommended by career civil servants, for factory
farms that were found willfully violating federal organic
standards. Other complaints detailing abuses on factory farms were
quashed or went uninvestigated.
The Bush administration also stacked the National Organic Standards Board
(NOSB) with representatives from corporate agribusiness instead of, as
Congress intended, a broad spectrum of the organic community. The
President and Secretary need to hear that the organic community wants the
very best new, independent nominees on the 15-member NOSB. Our
new governmental leaders need to hear from you, now!
Cornucopia's "Change@USDA" campaign is helping stakeholders in the
organic community unite for rehabilitation of the NOP. We need a
sweeping management shakeup at the National Organic Program. We
need your help to build momentum for change.
NOTE: More specifics on Cornucopia's
CHANGE@USDA campaign can be found at
this link or under the
action alerts
tab at
www.cornucopia.org.
Please make additional copies of the proxy-letter for your friends and
family and mail them back to The Cornucopia Institute ASAP ... at PO Box
126, Cornucopia, WI 54827... and please forward this message on to
others!
All contents copyright © 1996 - 2008, The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Revised: September, 2008
Please send comments or corrections on this page to noyes@noyes.org
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