I can understand why New York Times journalists sometimes buy into the claims of Organic Consumers Association: They sound like a legitimate group because they have been quoted in the New York Times, they claim to be progressives, and they claim Food Is A Corporate Conspiracy, and you are only getting paid by the New York Times if you share those values, or are at least a nationally renowned token alternative to them.

But editors should know better by now.

Organic Consumers Association is not just opposed to farming, they are opposed to vaccines. They always have been. They are bought by the organic industry, 'consumers' have nothing to do with it. They created a junkyard dog site, US Right To Know, which exists only to attack scientists. A school teacher in Maryland had to get a restraining order against one of their flunkies, Paul Thacker.


Do you think cell phones cause cancer, vaccines cause autism, and that organic pesticides make you healthier? Then Organic Consumers Association is for you. No science allowed!

Yet Andrew Jacobs may be just falling into the trap that Eric Lipton and Sheila Kaplan fell into previously, because he uses emotional verbiage right out of the organic trade group playbook, such as that farmers are "bound by mandates that dictate every step of production." What the real world calls it is quality control. Non-organic farmers and processors are absolutely bound by government mandates that dictate every step of production while organic ones just buy a sticker from any one of 80 "certifying" groups - groups that only make money selling stickers - and start selling food that is only inspected if they give people E. coli.

Quality control - sorry, being "bound by mandates that dictate every step of productiion" - are better for the public. The people who interface with customers and are liable make sure that there are standards in place. Good luck getting that with some local guy who decided to raise turkeys.

Yet Organic Consumers Association and a few other misguided groups are suing Cargill over some colors on its label. Will it work? Of course not. Ronnie Cummings, the OCA Angry White Guy In Charge, knows it won't work. He just wanted to get into the New York Times so he could raise money from organic food trade groups showing his impact in the audience that matters - left-wing people who shop at Whole Foods and believe in acupuncture. As long as there are naïve journalists there, he will continue in his war on science.