New USDA rules further degrade integrity of organic certification

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(NaturalNews) Since its original inception back in the ’90s, the National Organic Program (NOP) has paved the way for food that is free of artificial ingredients, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and synthetic additives to flourish in the American marketplace under a common organic labeling standard. But this standard is now under attack, as new guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) strip key protections from the program that are meant to ensure that prohibited substances do not slip through the cracks.

While organic certification requirements have long allowed for certain prohibited substances to be used in organic food products when viable alternatives are unavailable, these exemptions have traditionally been bound by a “sunset process” that requires all prohibited substances to be removed after five years. The intent of this sunset process, of course, has always been to encourage manufacturers to seek out acceptable natural alternatives as quickly as possible so as to maintain the integrity of the organic program.

But the USDA recently issued a new ruling that does away with the mandatory expiration timeline for substances bound by the sunset process and instead allows them to be voted on for extended approval. As explained by Waking Times, this change puts an enormous burden on the public to keep a close eye on which substances are given sunset exemptions and when they are set to expire. In other words, it will be up to health-conscious individuals and consumer advocacy groups to convince members of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to remove sunset exemptions from the list of approved substances.

“Under the new policy, an exempt material could be permitted indefinitely unless a two-thirds majority of the NOSB votes to remove an exempted (synthetic) substance from the list,” writes Natasha Longo for Waking Times. “The new policy allows USDA to relist exemptions for synthetic materials without the recommendation of the independent board and outside of public view, as required by current law.”

This is a far cry from the previous NOP requirements which mandated that all sunset exemptions be automatically removed from the permitted substance list after five years, except in the case that a two-thirds “decisive” majority from the NOSB, backed by public review, decides to keep a substance on the list for a longer period of time. Now, the NOSB will actually have to achieve a two-thirds vote just to remove a substance from the list.

To put this all into perspective, there has been much debate lately about whether or not carrageenan, a synthetic thickening substance made from seaweed, should be allowed in products labeled as organic. The USDA decided earlier this year to renew approval for the stabilizing agent in organic food products after conducing its own review of the scientific literature and voting on the issue in accordance with the Organic Food Products Act of 1990. But under the new rule, approval for carrageenan would have automatically been renewed apart from the board specifically voting against it.

“The USDA’s decision minimizes all incentives for creating organic, natural alternative ingredients and lowers the standard for what consumers can expect behind the organic label,” wrote Beyond Pesticides, the Consumers Union, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Food and Water Watch (FWW) in a recent joint statement about the ruling.

“Allowing the USDA to automatically relist materials without the recommendation of the NOSB erodes the Board’s legal authority over materials decisions, a key to consumer trust in the organic label … Potentially allowing an indefinite listing of non-natural ingredients and requiring a super-majority vote to retire a substance after five years undermines the spirit of the law for how materials head into ‘sunset’ or retirement.”

You can read the full statement from these groups here:
http://www.beyondpesticides.org.

You can also view the full USDA ruling for the Notification of Sunset Process, as published in the Federal Register, here:
www.federalregister.gov.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.wakingtimes.com

www.federalregister.gov

http://www.beyondpesticides.org

http://www.businesswire.com

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Related Articles: • Interview: Organic Consumers Association’s Ronnie Cummins tells the truth about organic milk that isn’t • Organic Consumers Association’s Ronnie Cummings discusses corporate greed and organic milk • Whole Paycheck and Organic Food Deserts: The Challenge • Natural News exclusive: Whole Foods Market whistleblower says employees were deliberately trained to lie about GMOs – new Organic Spies video • Superfood meal powder review: Garden of Life Raw Meal and Boku Superfood • Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps Sues Estee Lauder and Others Over “Organic Cheater” Labeling

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New USDA rules further degrade integrity of organic certification

U.S. judge denies class certification sought by women suing Wal-Mart

The Wal-Mart company logo is seen outside a Wal-Mart Stores Inc company distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas June 6, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking

By Casey Sullivan and Dan Levine

Sat Aug 3, 2013 12:55am EDT

(Reuters) – In another setback for women suing Wal-Mart, a U.S. judge in San Francisco on Friday rejected an attempt to bring reformulated sex discrimination claims against the company as a class action.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer denied a motion for class certification brought by plaintiffs seeking to represent 150,000 women in Wal-Mart’s California offices who alleged the world’s largest retailer denied them pay raises and promotions because of their gender.

The claims were filed as a reformulated lawsuit after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a larger class-action sex discrimination against Wal-Mart Stores Inc in 2011 that claimed female employees at 3,400 Walmart stores nationwide were underpaid and given fewer promotions.

The California lawsuit was part of a broader strategy by women Wal-Mart workers to bring more narrowly tailored class actions in an attempt to seek damages, targeting Wal-Mart’s employment practices in regions throughout the country.

Instead of relying on nationwide statistical patterns and anecdotal evidence provided by plaintiffs, the California lawsuit had alleged specific discriminatory statements made by the district and regional managers that have decision-making authority over pay and promotions.

Breyer said in his ruling that the women could not bring their allegations as a class action because they had not established that their claims of the company’s employment practice were linked to a class-wide policy.

But he said: “This order does not consider whether plaintiffs themselves were victims of discrimination as alleged in their complaint; those individual claims shall proceed in this litigation.”

Still, Breyer took issue with some of the merits of the plaintiffs case. For one, he said that the women did not identify statistically significant disparities in pay and promotion decisions throughout the California regions at issue.

Breyer also noted that the women said they had anecdotes reflecting stereotyped views expressed by a number of regional managers, but only offered evidence of bias exhibited by about five percent of the top level management that they say guided lower-level decisions.

“Though plaintiffs succeeded in illustrating attitudes of gender bias held by managers at Wal-Mart, they failed to marshal significant proof that intentional discrimination was a general policy affecting the entire class,” Breyer said.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said in a statement that the company has had a strong policy against discrimination in place for many years, and that the allegations from the plaintiffs were not representative of the positive experiences of other women working at Wal-Mart.

“Judge Breyer gave the plaintiffs every opportunity to offer any evidence they wanted, and their evidence comes up short,” said Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer representing Wal-Mart. “We are gratified.”

Randy Renick, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that plaintiffs were “deeply disappointed” with the court’s decision and intended to appeal the ruling.

“While this court decision does not in any way negate the merits of the pay and promotion discrimination case against Wal-Mart, it does create yet another hurdle for these women to at long last have their day in court,” he said.

(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Gary Hill, Eric Walsh and Bill Trott)

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Reuters: Business News

U.S. judge denies class certification sought by women suing Wal-Mart

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Correct Kettering Respiratory Workouts Are Essential