By Eliot Coleman

My opinion on this topic is the same today as it was when this national process began. There is a better way of achieving cleaner, more nutritious food for consumers than imposing a national definition of "organic."

This better way, letting individual labels define themselves, was the practice in Europe during the '70s and '80s. The various European "organic" organizations -- Nature et Progres, Lemaire-Boucher, Soil Association, ANOG, Bio-Organic, Demeter -- each defined and published standards to which their food was grown, based on their different theories of how to produce the best quality food. There was even a Swiss supermarket chain, Migros, with its own line of low-chemical-input foods called "Migro-sano." Migros contracted with Swiss farmers to grow food to specific standards which banned the chemical inputs Swiss consumers were most concerned about, while allowing the less toxic products.

This open system offered numerous advantages to European consumers. Not only was there a range in price and quality, there was also the power to continually upgrade the standards. Whenever new agricultural research raised flags about a previously acceptable input or practice, the consumer shift to the labels not using that input or practice forced the other labels to shape up. This was a system driven to become ever better in response to the concerns of astute consumers rather than, as with any politically controlled system, ever more watered down in response to the influence of the powerful lobbyists.

Consumers should be aware that the virtues of this successful European model are presently seen as its fatal flaws. Such a wide range of consumer opinions and flexibility for improvement is unacceptable now that "organic" is big business. The expanding "organic" industry needs one simple, lowest-common-denominator definition for international trade. That is what the new Organic Standards are. But my question is this: Shouldn't the "organic" food option place the benefit to consumers ahead of the needs of corporations?