At the behest of several large grocery manufacturers, the USDA has provided interim approval for amendments to the National Organic Program, which would allow producers to use conventionally-grown (ie, not organic) agricultural ingredients in organic food processing.  The amendments would add 38 new ingredients to the National List of Allowed Substances.  A number of the ingredients are food coloring derived from plants, along with gelatin, hops, sausage casings, and others.  If this rule stands, results will include large-scale breweries marketing “organic” beer made with conventionally-grown hops. 

The USDA has already granted this amendment interim approval, after a scant 7-day public comment period in June.  The USDA has since reopened the comment period for an additional 60 days due to backlash over the original length.

In 2005, an appeals court ruled to clarify language in the National Organics Program regulations.  This section permits the use of non-organic, agricultural ingredients for processing only when the product is on the “approved substances” list, because an organic form is not commercially available.  Some grocery processors had been using non-organic agricultural ingredients that were not on the list, because they believed them to be commercially unavailable.  After the ruling, rather than seek out organic forms of the ingredients, the grocery industry petitioned the USDA to place 38 non-organic processing ingredients on the “allowed substances list.”

By allowing these substances onto the list, the USDA would be giving large grocery manufacturers a distinct advantage over organic farmers and other producers who have sought out organic ingredients and built a viable industry.  Rather than get the rules changed, large producers can create the market demand for the organic ingredients they need, as compliant producers have done all along.