No, I don't think so but I didn't research it.

E

No, food labeled as organic isn't allowed to be GMO.

But really who knows who paid off the inspector to get the "organic" label thrown on something. I know more than a few farmers who think the whole "organic" movement as regulated by the FDA is a crock because of the way it favors the large corporate producers. Most important, know your farmers, know your vendors. The good ones will be more than happy to share their agricultural policies and practices with you. I know I absolutely despise GMO's though, because of the total environmental insanity they represent, not the process of genetic modification. It's what they are breeding them to do, not the breeding process that I despise. But anyway, I do buy organic soy and corn products because of that, because I don't want to support breeding corn with BHt and soybeans resistant to Roundup herbicides.

Of course both soy and corn are used as animal feeds, so that opens another whole can of worms. But I really feel consumers can make a huge difference here--it has happened many times in the past with other issues of food quality. We eat very little meat at our house, but are still grappling with how to handle that one. "Organic" chicken is twice the price of the common stuff. I am hoping to find a producer locally that I like and can trust but still has reasonable prices. Maybe a needle in the haystack but more and more vendors are entering the market.

I try to buy organic as much as possible, but I usually avoid organic grown in China and Mexico because who knows what kind of oversight there is in either place. It's bad enough here.

But I'll buy non-organic European cheese and some other items (pasta specifically) because they have much stricter standards for additives and other potential toxins than we have here. I believe I've read that GMO is not allowed in Europe, but big business is always putting the pressure on trying to get their foot in the door.

lpink no kidding about paid inspectors. My dad, when he owned an egg ranch, once was given 'Organic' egg cartons to fill. He told the customer that he didn't follow organic protocol. The customer just shrugged his shoulders and didn't care. Since then my dad has pooh-poohed the entire industry and I don't blame him. That being said - where do you get organic corn? The only product I've found here is Rumford Organic corn starch. Never fresh organic. We do try to grow our own - we never seem to pick it at the right time, either too early or too late, LOL.

Olychick, I'm with you, what an oxymoron 'Organic from China'. I don't think so!

It's not the FDA that sponsors the organic certification and labeling, that was a typo, it's the USDA! Sorry for the confusion, my brain aint what it used to be!

I'm not saying the whole organic thing is a crock, but it's not a panacea either. I have heard of plenty of instances of misrepresentation. As always, "caveat emptor!"

GMO corn and soybeans are becoming ubiquitous, but I think/hope consumer pressure is going to reverse that trend.

I have a friend who used to give me a coffee can full of corn meal ground from corn meant for cattle feed and it was heaven!! Unbelievable corn bread!
But she says, "I can't do that any more, Linda...the guy who farms our land plants BT corn....and I don't think you want to eat that."....and I am thinking but I should have no problem eating the chops from the pics that eat that corn....but I digress!

BT....short for Bacilli thurigsais...or however it's spelled...is a bacilli that attacks the stomach of leaf and root munching worms.. It kills the corn root worm which winters in the soil hatches and feeds on the corn roots, making the plant weak and not well rooted, subject to "lodging"..falling over because of poor root support and making the corn plant not able to transport water and nutrients to the top of the plant.
Then the worm moves up to the ear itself where it feeds on the ends of the ears and the silk where it impairs pollination, which prevents full ears.
Farmers have fought that pest for years and years!!!...not very many years ago a mid July sight in the corn belt was crop dusters making pass after pass at tree top level and spraying poison over the fields....and hope the wind didn't carry it too far....Were the toxins in that spray better for us?? I don't know....but I do know that at some point some DDT was sprayed.
Damned if we do and damned if we don't!!

I agree, organic isn't always necessarily the be all and cure all some think it to be, but it's a good start.
I grow my garden with no pesticides (ask how many potato beetles I just squished by hand), no chemical fertilizers, lots of composted cow manure. I hoe and rototill and pull weeds, but no herbicides. Still, I couldn't be certified as "organic" because I don't meet the guidelines. Others can use "approved" chemicals and still be organic. So, no chemicals=not organic and some chemicals=organic? It's not always what people think it is, just like "free range" and "pastured" and "cage free" aren't what people think they are.

And just when you think you've got everything under control the Road Commission decides to spray for weeds or mosquitos, or the county "dusts" for tent caterpillars and then what?

And, of course, my pastured, grass fed and grass finished beef isn't organic either, there are those powdered sugar donuts, LOL.

so, what to do? The best we can, of course. As Lpink pointed out, money talks when you are depending on the government to "protect" you, so if you aren't a big contributor, count on taking care of yourself.

Annie

There's nothing wrong with Bt per se. In fact, it is often used in organic farming as a pesticide because it is a naturally occuring substance and it biodegrades quickly. The problem is, when you breed Bt chemicals into EVERY SINGLE ONE of your corn plants, in every single field in the country, then all you have done is dramatically, (like beyond belief) increase the selection pressure on insects to develop resistance to Bt. Case in point, I know an organic farmer who is upset as all heck because Bt is one of the few pesticides they use and his concern is that all this GMO Bt craze will do is rapidly decrease the amount of time Bt will be around as an effective option. BTW, he doesn't use plants bred to include Bt chemicals in their tissues, he APPLIES Bt to selected fields if there is a problem that Bt can solve.

Monsanto however doesn't care if insects develop resistance to one of their pesticides, they will just develop others to sell to you. They are pushers plain and simple and they want folks to get addicted to using their products all the time. Who can blame them, that's how they make their living! In fact, if I was a conspiracy theorist I would say that Monsanto is trying to push organic farmers out of business by co-opting and trashing one of their best tools. Actually no conspiracy is needed, once cannot blame a business from wanting all the customers in the world!! That's their job, and our right as consumers is to buy from them . . . or not.

What's the alternative?? Use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) which is a scientific method designed to MINIMIZE the chance that insects will develop resistance. You use pesticides judiciously, rotate your crops, treat infestations early, cover plants, use mechanical methods, interplant with unpalatable stuff, use traps and lures, use many varieties of corn, mix up your fields--there's a whole host of methodologies. But easier just to plant rows and rows of a monoculture year after year with your known chemical inputs that you buy from Monsanto. The idea is to take the guesswork (and brainwork I would argue) out of farming, make it more like the way a factory operates (hence the term "factory farming"). Ideally this would also buffer farmers from the financial ups and downs that come with working a natural system where so many things are unkown, although the jury is still out on how well that works in reality, since Nature still is Nature, and the laws of thermodynamics still apply. (What I'm hinting at is that these factory farm inputs all rely heavily on non-renewable FOSSIL FUELS to work.) I've seen figures from 10-20% of US fossil fuel consumption can be attributed to agriculture. I imagine the reason for the variability in the figures is that it depends on your assumputions and it varies from year to year and it is a difficult figure to pin down exactly.

Being a biologist I think the way we approach food production in this country is a form of insanity, since plants and insects are living things and living things are mallable, flexible, interconnected and inherintly variable. And when this whole Monsanto-orchestrated system breaks down, Monsanto will be happy to sell you their latest "fix" for the problems they create. I'm not knocking Monsanto, they've got a great little game going and it makes them lots of money and provides people with jobs, and we know that is always a good thing right? If this is what we want, this is what we will get. And if we have the will to implement alternatives, that's what we will get. I do know that corn borers and potato beetles are EXTREMELY difficult to control, particularly for organic farmers. Hence their issues with Monsanto . . . they are making it more difficult to grow these crops organically. As a side note, the "Green Revolution" that so increased our yields in corn, (a plant that uses a lot of nitrogen which is why is was formerly used in rotation with other crops since it depleted the soil when grown year after year), did so by using nitrogen fertilizers (processed using fossil fuels) which makes corn tissue very, very palatable to a whole host of insect pests. No problems there though, Monsanto has a fix for that . . .