NATIONAL ORGANIC STANDARDS BOARD STACKED WITH INDUSTRY REPS

December 13, 2006

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Health Freedom Fighter Alert

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:55:06 -0600

The USDA, behind closed doors, recently announced several highly

questionable appointees to the National Organic Standards Board

(NOSB). Despite calls from the organic community to let the public

know ahead of time who the nominees were, the USDA kept the names of

the nominees secret. The NOSB advises the USDA on how to interpret and

implement national organic standards. Despite federal law that

mandates that the 15-member NOSB must be broadly representative of the

organic community, the USDA's recent appointees are all notable for

their past or present ties to corporate agribusiness. For example the

appointee for the seat reserved for a " Consumer and Public Interest

Group Representative " was given to Tracy Miedema, who works for

Stahlbush Island Farms, a split-farm operation with 3/4 of its acreage

non-organic. Miedema, who previously worked for a subsidiary of

General Mills (Small Planet) freely admits that Stahlbush utilizes

Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, as well as other chemical pesticides and

fungicides. The USDA's appointee for the seat reserved for a scientist

is Katrina Heinze, who works for Small Planet/General Mills, a company

with a hardball reputation for selling sugar-laden cereals to kids,

supporting GMOs, and industrial agriculture. Heinze was forced to

resign from the NOSB last year, under pressure from the OCA and the

Consumer's Union, after being appointed " consumer representative " to

the NOSB. Another one of the " organic experts " appointed to this

powerful government board is a representative of Campbell's Soup.

Please tell the USDA that organic consumers want all nominees and

future appointments to be made in a fair and transparent manner and

that we believe the current crop of pro-industry appointees are

completely unacceptable.

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