PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION

The rules, which Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman called the world's "strictest, most comprehensive" to cover foods, produced without synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers or antibiotics, replace a hodgepodge of state standards. They also bring uniformity to organic-farming practices and provide consumers with a national definition for the term "organic".

The rules bar organic-food growers from using genetically modified seeds or food ingredients, employing municipal-sewage sludge as a fertilizer and using radiation to sterilize food. They also set strict processing and labeling criteria.

Consumers will begin to see new organic labels, including a USDA organic seal on food products, by next summer. The deadline for compliance is June 2002.

National standards, which the USDA was required to develop udner a 1990 law, are widely expected to boost substantially the already fast-growing $6-billion-a-year organic food industry. Consumer advocates and organic farming purists clearly have prevailed in a fierce lobbying battle over the standards.

Food processors were disappointed that the USDA organic label doesn't include a disclaimer saying that organic foods aren't necessarily safer or more nutritious than conventional food. however, the national food processors association said it welcomed the uniformity of national standards.

The regulatory package announced yesterday included several changes from what was first proposed in March. To carry the organic label, products must contain at least 95% organic ingredients, and the remaining ingredients must also be organic whenever they are "commercially avaialble." To be labeled "made with organic ingredients," products must be 70% organic, up from 50% minimum proposed last March.

Another important change allows wine produced with sulfur dioxide to be labeled "made with organic grapes." A third allows organic labeling on produce and other foods that have no more than 5% of the federal limits on pesticide residues.

Organic-food advocates applauded the long-awaited standards.

"No longer will there be questions concerning what "organic" stands for or whether the process has been certified," said katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the organic Trade Association in Greenfield, Mass. but George Siemon, head of the Organic Valley Cooperative in LaFarge, Wisc., cautioned that the department still has to produce a comprehensive manual of farming practices.

under the rules, all organic foods must come from farms or ranches certified by a state or private agency, and all such agencies must be accredited by the USDA.

Currently there are 12,200 organic farmers nationwide, and their numbers are increasing by 12% a year. Farmers exempt from certification are those with sales less than $5,000 a year.