Now that it is an annual $15 billion market in the United States, organic food is no longer considered a niche market.

But it may be a battleground.

"Fifty percent of organic food is now sold in supermarkets. It's gone mainstream," said Mark Kastel, senior farm policy analyst for Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute, a family-farm support group.

"There are large agribusiness companies now involved that are also the companies that make large campaign donations," he said.

So when some of these food companies met in September with the Organic Trade Association to formulate a plan to ask Congress for changes in federal organic statutes -- changes critics claim would weaken those -- conflict broke out among organic ranks.

What worried organic groups was the possibility that an addition to the agricultural appropriations bill now in committee would allow U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel and industry lobbyists -- not consumers -- to control what goes into processed organic foods, said Craig Minowa, environmental scientist with Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association.

But the public responded, said Minowa. "Over 100,000 calls and letters were sent to legislators objecting to this sneak attack," he said.

As a result of that outcry, the Senate called for USDA officials to study the impact of the proposed changes, said Kastel.

"We have put forward a proposal that seeks a moratorium on congressional action while calling for a summit that would include all stakeholders in the organic industry," he said.

"The secretive process with negotiations conducted behind closed doors doesn't smell right," said Kastel, noting farmers were left out of the discourse on organic standards completely.

But small producers have been dubious over the federal government's role in defining what the organic label means since 1990, when the Organic Food Production Act was passed, said Terra Brockman, executive director of the Land Connection Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Congerville that promotes healthy food.

"The pattern from the beginning has been that the agribusiness industry gets heard more than small farmers," she said.

For Princeville grower Brad Guidi, there are other things more important than the USDA organic label.

"On the local level, the trust between grower and consumer is more important than USDA certification," he said.

"Sometimes the USDA regulations are more trouble than they're worth. There's a lot of record keeping and there's time and money spent to follow the regulations. We tell people we raise by organic methods without the regulations," said Guidi, who raises vegetables and free-range chickens and turkeys.

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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News