OPs in WI, MN, IL, IA, MI, et al, check this out:
NOSB Meetings
The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meets several times a year. Below are the most recent meetings. Select a meeting and click the Go button. Meeting information, including agendas, transcripts, and hotel information, will display at the bottom of the screen.
October 25-28, 2010
Meeting Information
Best Western InnTowner
2424 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53726
http://www.ams.usda.gov/...
Meeting agenda:
Press Release Announcing Meeting (coming soon)
Federal Register Notice of Meeting
Meeting Agenda & Recommendations
Public Comment
* Written comments | The National Organic Standards Board welcomes your comments on their fall 2010 recommendations and discussion documents via www.regulations.gov (preferred) or via mail (instructions provided in the Federal Register Notice (PDF)) Written comment deadline: Tuesday, October 12, 2010.
* In-person comments | Contact Lisa Ahramjian at nosb@ams.usda.gov or 202-720-3252 to reserve a 5-minute slot, noting the desired date and topic. In-person request deadline: Tuesday, October 12, 2010.
Nanotechnology in food production is the latest hot topic. From the Center for Food Safety:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/...
Organic is under threat yet again. This time it’s by the use of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies in organic production systems. The National Organic Standards Board has as of yet failed to recommend a ban on nanotechnologies and nanomaterials in organic, despite strong evidence of health and environmental risks from some nanomaterials and overwhelming public sentiment that use of the technology, like genetic engineering, goes against the core principles of organic.
Nanotechnology is the deliberate engineering of materials, structures, and systems at the atomic and molecular level. It is a platform technology that will work hand-in-hand with genetic engineering and pesticides to further entrench our current industrial agricultural systems. Examples already in progress include nano-engineering of food and food packaging to allow further transport, nano-encapsulating of substances in food and nano-size pesticides, increasing their toxicity. There are also huge health and environmental risks.
Many of the world's leading food companies are investing heavily in nanotechnology applications for food and food packaging. The European Parliament has called for nanotechnology to be prohibited for all food. U.S. regulators have so far ignored nano-food regulations. This is despite a growing presence of nano-enabled food packaging, the beginnings of a nano-food market, and calls for reform by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The next meeting of NOSB is in April, 2011, Seattle, for you Left Coasters:
April 26-29, 2011
Meeting Information
Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Avenue
1415 5th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101-2313
Book sleeping rooms under USDA block
Additional information coming soon!