07.01.05
The Agriculture Department is taking its round, green “USDA Organic” label off personal care products and cosmetics. When it created the seal in 2002, the primary intent was to certify the organic claims made by food producers, such as meat from animals that are free of antibiotics and not confined indoors, or vegetables grown without pesticides. But the department also opened the door to making a wide range of other products eligible for the label: cosmetics and personal care items, pet food, dietary supplements, textiles like cotton T-shirts and fish…Three years later, the department decided it had gone too far. In April, it began telling companies their cosmetics and other personal care products can’t be government-certified as organic, after all. Fish and pet food are also off the table, but only for now. The department is creating task forces to make rules for certifying them. Still being decided is whether dietary supplements can use the seal.
—Libby Quaid, The Associated Press, 6/1/05
—Libby Quaid, The Associated Press, 6/1/05