Charlie wrote:

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:00:52 -0700, Persephone wrote:

But then they cannot sell the fruit as organic, nicht wahr?

At least until this Administration succeeds in their current scheme to
allow much larger amounts of non-organic content into food labeled
"Organic".

Quiz: How many are aware of this plan, and how many have protested to
their elected officials?

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/09/1758/

Excerpt:

"The USDA rules come with what appears to be an important consumer
protection: Manufacturers can use nonorganic ingredients only if
organic versions are not “commercially available.”

But food makers have found a way around this barrier, in part because
the USDA doesn’t enforce the rule directly. Instead, it depends on its
certifying agents - 96 licensed organizations in the U.S. and overseas
- to decide for themselves what it means for a product to be available
in organic form.

Despite years of discussion, the USDA has yet to provide certifiers
with standardized guidelines for enforcing this rule.

“There is no effective mechanism for identifying a lack of organic
ingredients,” complained executives of Pennsylvania Certified Organic,
a nonprofit certifying agent, in a letter to the USDA. “It is a very
challenging task to ‘prove a negative’ regarding the organic supply.”

Large companies have a better chance of winning approval to use
nonorganic ingredients because the amount they demand can exceed the
small supply of organic equivalents, said Craig Minowa, environmental
scientist for the Organic Consumers Assn."

Charlie

Your assumption here is that there exists an organic equivalent for every
pesticide and fungicide. Although organic methods sometimes work, sometimes
they don't
and orchardists don't want their crop destroyed or even heavily damaged.

Sherwin D.