Geoff,

If that is what I seemed to be saying, I should have been more careful with my wording!

I was saying that anybody who puts the words "Certified Organic" on their packaging is claiming a very specific USDA status, and had better be following USDA guidelines. If a producer labels chicken "Certified Organic" you can be sure that chicken was NOT raised with ionophore coccidiostats or any other product that is not "organic". I don't think there has ever been any question of that. I have never seen where Tyson has claimed all its products to be "Certified Organic". They are not.

The issue in the Tyson discussion was that Tyson was claiming, "Raised without antibiotics". This is very different than "certified Organic". The USDA took issue with the "Rasied without antibiotics" label, because they are now ruling that ionophores are antibiotics. This seems to be a reversal in USDA policy, and is what all the controversy is all about.

"Certified Organic" is an altogether different classification. For chicken, or any other food product to be classified as "Certified Organic", they must be able to demonstrate to one of the 95 US or International USDA authorized certifying agencies that production complies with the published USDA "Organic" standards. Those standards are very strict, and require that everything fed to the chickens (or going into a product) be organically grown. For poultry, for example, the feed must be grown on Certified Organic farms. Products that go into the feed, such as minerals, vitamins, or even Agrastim, must be "listed" Organic products. The farm land on which the grain is raised must be farmed without pesticides or herbicides. The grower must submit all this to the USDA "authorized certifying agency" in the form of a "Farm Plan". The farm plan is approved and the production facility inspected periodically by the certifying agency. It is closely monitored and reviewed.

It is my understanding that, up to this point, in trials done with Agrastim, the growers continued to use coccidiostats in conjunction with Agrastim. Ionophores have been, up until July, considered to be in a very different class than subtherapeutic, growth-promoting antibiotics that are closely related to the antibiotics used for treatment of human bacterial infections, and that are the focus of the controversy surrounding the rise of antibacterial resistant bacteria. If you want chicken raised without antibiotics, and without ionophore coccidiostats, you probably should go for the "certified organic" product. Even though "Certified Organic" poultry is more expensive, many consumers are deciding it is worth the extra cost.

I hope that is more clear.

Regards,

-z