The National Organic Program Proposed Rules:
Is Your Food Organic if it is Grown With Sewage Sludge?

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the proposed rules for the National Organic Program today in the Federal Registry. These rules will determine the USDA's guidelines for organic food production and certification. They will define what can and cannot be called organic and will have the force of law.

Food currently identified by the USDA as organic is food grown and manufactured without the use of added hormones, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Since some hormones, pesticides, and fertilizers are acceptable inputs in organic agriculture, determining the good from the bad, the potentially harmful from the harmless, is the rub. Making that determination essentially falls on the shoulders of two parties: the National Organics Standard Board and the secretary of agriculture.

The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 required the establishment of the National Organic Program to define the rules for producers and handlers of agricultural products that are sold or labeled as organic. The act provides for the secretary of agriculture to establish a list of approved and prohibited substances to be included in the program standards. If items on the list of prohibited substances are used in the production or manufacture of food, it cannot be called organic. The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), a USDA advisory board, and its technical advisors evaluate the substances proposed for the list, then make recommendations to the secretary of agriculture based on their findings. Public comments are solicited during this stage, then again by the USDA before the final ruling.

Every day industry dumps carcinogenic and hormone disrupting chemicals into our air, water, soil, and food without our consent. It is only after these chemicals are in the environment and our bodies that their production and distribution can be stopped; though preventing their use is a rare and difficult process. With the National Organic Program (NOP) rules, we have an opportunity to prevent the poisoning of an identifiable segment of our food supply. Alarmingly, the ultimate laundering of toxic waste -- where dangerous substances are digested in municipal sewage treatment plants and regurgitated as sewage sludge -- has not been ruled out by the proposed NOP regulations.

Municipal sewage sludge, commonly called "biosolids" by the waste management industry, was determined by the NOSB to be a synthetic substance and not appropriate for use in organic crop production. However, the final determination is up to the secretary of agriculture.

In the proposed rules, comments about sludge were solicited in the following manner: "we [USDA] are requesting comments to assess the extent to which biosolids may be used in organic production. The USDA specifically invites comments on whether the use of biosolids (municipal sludge) should be permitted or prohibited in organic production. The USDA also invites comments on the classification of biosolids as a synthetic rather than a non-synthetic substance." After serious technical analysis and extensive public commentary, the NOSB ruled that sludge use as a fertilizer, irradiation, and the genetic engineering of crops are unacceptable practices for organic certification. By inviting public commentary at this stage of the process, the Agriculture Department is sidestepping their own advisory board and demanding the public step up to the plate one more time to prove these practices wrong before putting them to rest.

If sludge is used as a fertilizer in the production of USDA certified organic foods, the term "organic" will become meaningless. Sludge must be put on the NOP's National List as a synthetic and prohibited substance; otherwise, when you buy "organic" food fertilized with sewage sludge -- which is likely given that the United States produces 11.6 billion pounds (dry weight) of sludge per year and that there is a tremendous economic incentive for the sludge handlers to dump it on land (under the guise of fertilizer) -- you will be eating poisoned food with organic certification. It will be exposed to an unpredictable combination of the 70,000 different chemicals used by U.S. industry; nearly all of which are unregulated in sewage sludge. These chemicals include chlorinated pesticides; dioxin; heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium, etc.); carcinogenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons; flame retardants (asbestos); industrial solvents; and whatever else is poured down the drain. Even Superfund sites have gotten in on the act, laundering their wastes through municipal sewage treatment plants.

The public has until March 16, 1998 to submit its comments to the USDA on the NOP proposed rules. It is time to raise our voices again and say no to the use of sewage sludge for organic food production. The next chorus will be a resounding no to the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer on anything that is part of the web of life.

Laura Orlando

For more information, see:

The National Organic Program home page for the full text of the rules, instructions on how to submit comments on-line, and postings of comments received.

How to submit your comments on sludge use in organic agriculture to the USDA.

Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly #561: Sewage Sludge, A New U.S. Waste Policy Emerges, Pt 2.

The Sludge Scam: Should Sewage Sludge Fertilize Your Vegetables.
Laura Orlando, Dollars and Sense, May/June 1997.

The New York Times editorial (December 16, 1997): Reading the Organic Rules.

The ReSource Library for articles on sludge and ReSource Links for hypertext links to sludge related topics.