Redefining the language
Here's another example of oligopolies plotting with government to make it hard for the small-time businesses that compete with them. The ability to prescribe government policy, and in this case, redefine the legal meaning of words allows big enterprises to check upstarts.
That's from a Guardian article called "Crowding the Market", as reproduced at salon.com (6.7.2004).
In April, the US agriculture secretary, Ann Veneman, announced a relaxation of the rules governing organic produce. Without public consultation the US department of agriculture (USDA) issued four directives which would have allowed organic farmers to use chemicals of unknown provenance on crops, to treat organic dairy cows with antibiotics, and to feed organic cattle with non-organic fish meal.
By redefining organic, the USDA would open the door to allow agribusiness (chemical companies, food producer, and food manufacturers) to proceed as normal and still package their food as "organic." By making the term as meaningless as the long-discredited "natural," this step was intended to crush the growing, small-business organic foods market. It's part of a pattern of changing regulations and definitions by Big Food.
The timing of the announcement was poorly chosen. It happened just before the national organic standards board meeting in Chicago. This group of family farmers and business men started making noise, writing petitions, and sending out press release, furious that there was no consultation with concerned parties, as the law mandates. The reaction was so loud that the administration retreated. Veneman withdrew the rules changes and instructed her staff to reconsider the new rules.
With an election looming, the administration doubtless feared a backlash, especially in some critical Midwestern farm states. But the threat of giving Monsanto, ConAgra, and Dean Foods their way is still looming.
Now America's organic farmers are watching the Bush administration to see if it makes good its pledge to consider their views in drawing up new definitions of just what can and cannot be called organic. Many fear the worst, and suspect that the attempt to lower the threshold for organic goods is merely a prelude to a general relaxation of standards, paving the way for agribusiness to market itself as organic and sell its products in the farmers' markets that provide the lifeblood for so many small growers.
