40 Groups Against Weakening Organic Standards

"WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A coalition of concerned advocates from 44 organizations have sent a message to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), urging caution as that body considers whether or not to weaken USDA Organic Standards, it was announced today. The NOSB is meeting in late November of this year to consider the report of their Aquaculture Working Group. If acted upon, their recommendations would allow fish to carry the USDA Organic label - despite being raised under conditions that fail to meet basic USDA Organic principles.

In their letter, the groups - which collectively represent more than one million stakeholders and concerned citizens -comment on the Aquaculture Working Group's recommendations to allow use of fishmeal from wild fish (which has the potential to carry mercury and PCBs) and open net cages (which promotes pollution from fish waste, can spread disease and parasites killing wild fish and allows escapes of farmed fish into the wild). The coalition letter to the NOSB can be found at: http://www.puresalmon.org/pdfs/nosb-letter.pdf."

Read the article