Organic farming is rattling the entrenched agri-business community with a proposed amendment that would would allow the organic industry to organize and pay for a unified
industry promotional campaign called a “check-off” that is facilitated
by the Agriculture Department but is no cost to the government. These
promotional programs have traditionally been limited to individual
commodities or crops, producing familiar campaigns like “Got Milk?” and
“Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner.” This amendment passed committee even with comments like this:
“That’s one of the things that has caught me and raises my concerns,
is that industry’s lack of respect for traditional agriculture,” said
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga. He was referring to some organic companies’
efforts to reduce the number of genetically modified crops in the
marketplace.
At the same time, Scott acknowledged that he and his wife buy organic foods.
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