USDA Uncovers PLOT To Import FAKE CHINESE ORGANIC FOODS

[Segami]

:smoke::smoke:



" After years of ringing the alarm bell about fraudulent Chinese organic production, the nation's preeminent organic farming watchdog, The Cornucopia Institute, applauded the federal government's current approach to enforcement and its transparency. On February 11, The Department of Agriculture (USDA) publicly released evidence of attempted fraud by a Chinese organic agricultural marketer.


The agency's National Organic Program (NOP) made public a fraudulent organic certificate produced by an uncertified supplier in China. The Chinese firm used the counterfeit certificate to represent non-organic crops, including soybeans, millet and buckwheat, as certified organic. Ecocert, a French USDA accredited certifying agent whose name was illegally used on the fraudulent document, brought this issue to the attention of NOP officials at USDA, which regulates and oversees the American organic market.


In its 2009 report on the organic soy industry, entitled Behind the Bean, The Cornucopia Institute raised concerns about organic soybeans imported from China. The recent finding by the USDA, spotlighting fraud by a Chinese supplier, confirms the suspicions Cornucopia documents that imported organic products cannot always be trusted and that domestically sourced organic soybeans are more desirable. In the 2009 report, the Wisconsin-based farm policy research group estimated that as much as half of organic soybeans used in the US came from overseas, primarily China."This incident illustrates why so many responsible processors and marketers in the organic industry shun organic imports," states Charlotte Vallaeys, the Cornucopia report's lead author.


After multiple incidents of food contamination, including melamine in pet food, many US corporations are now, justifiably, leery of putting their brand name on products containing Chinese ingredients, conventional and organic. Cornucopia had, since the middle part of the last decade, been voicing concerns about imported products from China. It had blasted the USDA, during the Bush administration, for providing oversight of domestic organic certification programs while, for years, ignoring imports from China


cont'

http://www.naturalnews.com/031364_organic_food_China.html



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[Kennah]

1. Heh, c'mon, the lead in the toys was organic. I mean it's on the periodic table.

[sasha031]

2. how about some plastic rice with your chow mein