• Free of genetic modification


• Processed without irradiation


• Grown without the use of processed sewage sludge as fertilizer


• Grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and/or herbicides

• Raised humanely and with access to pasture


• Raised on organic feed


• Raised without the use of antibiotics and/or growth hormones

• A new fishmeal guidance statement dated April 28th says that fishmeal can be fed to cattle being raised for organic beef. Fishmeal is a common source of protein in traditional cattle operations, but, as is the case with the fish from which it's obtained, this meal is often contaminated with mercury, PCBs, and other persistent toxins that tend to accumulate in animal fatty tissues. NOP rules say that an organic beef cow's diet must consist of organic forage and feeds, but that supplements are allowed to a certain extent in order to improve nutritional balance of cattle diets. The only stipulation is that these supplements must be “natural,” which is defined as being derived from mineral, plant, or animal matter that has not undergone a synthetic process. Fishmeal meets this standard, and while technically legal under the rule, activists say that the use of fishmeal as a cattle feed supplement violates the spirit and intent of the standards, and that the meat from beef cows which have been fed fishmeal possibly contaminated with bioaccumulative poisons should not receive the organic label.


• A new pesticide guidance statement will allow farmers to apply synthetic chemicals to organic crops in the form of so-called “inerts” so long as their farm's certifying agent is not aware that the legally allowed formulas being used on the farm contain them. Here's how it works: As part of the NOP certifying procedure, certifying agents work with farmers to assure that their product can be legally labeled organic. This work includes making sure farmers don't use any synthetic chemical pesticides on their crops. Instead, farmers are allowed to use specified pest and weed control compounds obtained from natural ingredients. Pest and weed control products with these non-synthetic materials as their active ingredients are permitted on organic farms so long as these products do not also contain any so-called inert ingredients that appear on official EPA registries named Inert Lists 1, 2, and 3.
  
  Inert ingredients are those ingredients not directly related to a pesticide formula's killing function. They include things like carrier, dispersal, and drying agents, which are added to a formula to make it easier to use, faster to take effect, longer-lasting, etc. Unfortunately, from a biological standpoint, inerts are often anything but. They are frequently as toxic as a product's active ingredients and include known hazards like formaldehyde and toluene.
  
  A new NOP guidance statement from the USDA says that farmers can use any product on their crops so long as it does not:
  
  • Contain banned active ingredients or EPA Inert List 1 ingredients (both of which are legally required to be listed on product labels)
  
  
  • And does not, to their knowledge, contain ingredients found on EPA Inert lists 2 and 3 (which do not legally have to be listed)
  
  
  In other words, as long as a farmer and his certifier have tried to find out what List 2 and 3 inerts a product contains, they can use that product, regardless of whether or not they were able to get a satisfactory answer about the presence of any banned inerts. Here's what the official statement says: “If the certifying agent and producer, after reasonable effort (contacting the manufacturer, EPA, and other USDA accredited certifying agents) are unable to ascertain whether inerts in a pesticide are allowed under the NOP, the certifying agent will approve that part of the organic production system plan.” The problem here, of course, is that manufacturers zealously guard unlisted ingredients under the guise of protecting proprietary information. Phone calls to the manufacturer or the EPA are highly unlikely to provide further information on a product formula. Activists fear the end result will be banned chemicals being used freely on organic crops as manufacturers refuse to disclose formula ingredients and agribusiness producers take advantage of this silence and the loophole that exploits it.


• The third troubling development concerns the use of antibiotics and synthetic hormones on dairy cows. The USDA recently issued a guidance statement that says individual cows used in organic milk production can be treated with any kind of drug or synthetic hormone. Milk obtained from these treated cows, however, may not be sold as organic for 12 months following any treatment. Unfortunately, bovine pharmaceuticals tend to bioaccumulate, which means they easily build up in animal fatty tissues over time and are primarily released via (you guessed it) milk production. In addition, the ruling means that any cow can be “converted” to an organic milk producer after a 12-month waiting period, regardless of the quantity and type of drugs or hormones it may have received over its life. This could encourage split-operation factory farms that shift animals back and forth between organic and non-organic production. It will also mean that consumers will no longer enjoy a guarantee that their organic milk is free of drug and hormone residues as the national standards intended.

It's been said so often, it's become a cliché…Kids are the future. In the realm of marketing, however, that statement is all too often translated as “kids are the future of consumerism.” It's a disturbing little creed that's created an entire advertising subculture dedicated to doing everything it can to undermine parental protections and turn our children into unhealthy overconsumers at all costs. Fortunately, a new book is exposing this harrowing hard sell and helping parents fight back.

Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, by Susan E. Linn, New Press, 2004 examines and exposes what is perhaps the most insidious brand of marketing to ever come down the media pike: Advertising aimed at children, the most vulnerable audience of all. Having mined just about every other consumer demographic they can find for new customers, corporations of all kinds are now turning their attention to this final frontier with alarming vigor, turning what was once a marketing backwater into a $15 billion a year industry.

Author, psychologist, and children's advocate Susan Linn takes readers on a no-holds-barred, behind-the-scenes tour of a world that sees kids as just another target ripe for the picking. Though concerned parents may try to set limits at home and away, commercial forces are working overtime to sabotage these efforts with messages children haven't the savvy to resist. From picture books featuring brand characters to ads aimed at adults but embedded with subtle messages for children, the dangers are everywhere, and they're placing our children's health and welfare at grave risk. Comprehensive without being dull, and passionate without turning preachy, Linn casts a highly critical eye on marketers and their methods while delivering a compelling blend of real-life stories from marketing's front lines, childhood development theories, cutting edge research data, the self-serving perspectives of the marketing executives themselves, and more. Along the way, you'll learn about concepts like the nag factor, pester power, jolts-per-minute, and even something called prenatal marketing.

The result is a fairly scathing indictment of an amoral industry exploiting children for profit, and a persuasive case that something needs to be done to stop it. To that end, Linn also shows us what we can do to save our kids from what she calls the “marketing maelstrom.” It's important knowledge from an important book that we think everyone with children should read.

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