April 11th, 2013
A joint statement of Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch and The Center for Food Safety
Portland, Ore.—Today the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB)
rejected a petition to extend the expiration date for the use of
oxytetracycline to treat fire blight in apple and pear production beyond
October 21, 2014. The decision is a victory for the organic standard
and advances efforts to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics.
The vote came after a long and controversial debate because some
apple and pear growers do not believe they have adequate alternatives to
antibiotics. Consumer and environmental advocates urged them to end the
use of tetracycline as soon as possible in order to meet consumer
expectations and to respond to mounting evidence that
antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a serious threat to public health.
Antibiotics are not allowed in any other types of organic food,
including production of organic livestock.
We applaud the Board for making the right decision to end the use of
this antibiotic as soon as possible and we believe this timeline for
ending the use of tetracycline is consistent with consumer expectations.
This decision will drive the organic apple and pear market to a higher
standard.
We urge the USDA to help growers continue to find workable
alternative treatments for fire blight that are compatible with organic
production. The Board passed a resolution to encourage the USDA to
investigate a transitional option for the emergency use of tetracycline
until 2017. The agency must guarantee that any emergency use is
extremely limited, ends as soon as possible and, most importantly,
apples and pears from treated trees can not be sold as organic.
More background on this issue, including consumer poll results can be found here:
http://fwwat.ch/NOSBabxVOTE
Contacts: Naomi Starkman,
nstarkman@gmail.com, 917.539.3924
Anna Ghosh,
aghosh@fwwatch.org, 415.293.9905
Abigail Seiler, CFS,
abigail@centerforfoodsafety.org, 202.679.3370
Food & Water Watch works to ensure the
food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So
we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take
charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public
tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality
of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and
educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public
control.
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