Just about everything we care about: our land, air, water, food, personal health, social justice, and even democracy, is affected by an action currently being taken by the federal government. For the last thirty years, the organic farming movement has grown and matured, producing food in ways that are more ecologically and socially sound than conventional farming.

This past December, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman announced a new proposed set of national standards for the burgeoning organic food industry. Simply put, the new rules aim to set a uniform national standard about what is and what is not organic.

But the proposed new rules have generated a storm of controversy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been flooded with thousands of comments on the proposed site. We here at Democracy Now! have also been flooded with calls on this issue; we’ll play some of them later on in the show.

The deadline for public comments on organic standards is tomorrow. Joining us to talk about it today are Jay Feldman, executive director of NCAMP, the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, and Steven Sprinkle, an Agricultural reporter for the monthly newsletter Acres U.S.A.

Guests:

• Jay Feldman, executive director of NCAMP.
• Steven Sprinkle, Agricultural reporter for the monthly newsletter Acres U.S.A.

Related Links:

• National Coalition Agaisnt the Misuse of Pesticides
• USDA AMS–National Organic Program Proposed Rule

Tape:

As our guests stressed on the show, the organic movement has been a grassroots movement. Here’s what one Democracy Now! listener is doing to organize around the issue.