- In April 2004, Bush's USDA issued legally binding guidances allowing the use of antibiotics on organic dairy cows and synthetic pesticides on organic farms.
- Another 2004 guidance narrowed the scope of the federal organic certification program to crops and livestock, meaning that national organic standards would "not be developed for fish, nutritional supplements, pet food, fertilizers, cosmetics, and personal-care products."
- Though then-Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman reportedly "rescinded the directives" after activist uproar, the vice chairman of the National Organic Standards Board told the Chicago Reader that the USDA "sticks to their interpretations, only now they are no longer posted."
- In June 2007, the USDA greenlighted a proposal "allowing 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the 'USDA Organic' seal, despite more than 10,000 e-mails and letters from concerned consumers and farmers."
- This past September, the USDA "abruptly halted a government program that tests the levels of pesticides in fruits, vegetables and field crops, arguing that the $8 million-a-year program is too expensive."
Most recently, the organic community received an F-you from the Bush USDA in the form of fish and dairy regulations proposed that ran counter to the wishes of organic consumers and farmers.
Note about the decision to allow 38 synthetics in organics: this came about by congressional action if I remember right. At first there was a free-for-all, designating that organic foods must be 95%+ organic and 5% "whatever." A Maine blueberry farmer named Arthur Harvey sued - and won - to change the rules so that organic meant 100% organic. Later that year, there was a back room deal that resulted in a provision going into the ag appropriations bill allowing a specified list of designated synthetics - and the list was controlled by a Bush appointee.
