Organic Food: Outcry Over Rule Changes that Allow More Pesticides, Hormones
by Carol Ness

Published on Saturday, May 22, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle

A showdown is taking shape over the nation's organic food standards, triggered by a spate of recent rule changes that some producers and activists say are setting a pattern that could eventually render the organic label meaningless.

The changes in the National Organic Program standards, made in April, expand the use of antibiotics and hormones in organic dairy cows, allow more pesticides in the organic arsenal and for the first time let organic livestock eat potentially contaminated fishmeal.