Bureaucrats at the National Organics Standards Board in Washington don't think the organic label is all that important. They recommended to the USDA that fish be labeled 'organic' - even if that fish has been fed fishmeal that contains mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or other toxins. During the past decade, U.S. organic sales have grown 20 percent or more annually. Organic food and beverage sales are estimated to have topped $15 billion in 2004, up from $3.5 billion in 1997. Sales are projected to more than double by 2009.
Consumer spending on organic has grown so much that we've attracted big players who want to bend the rules so that they can brand their products as organic without incurring the expenses involved in truly living up to organic standards," Lobbying by large food companies to weaken organic rules started when the U.S. Department of Agriculture fully implemented organic labeling standards in October 2002.
Food producers immediately fought the new rules. A Georgia chicken producer was ultimately able to persuade one of his state's congressional representatives to slip through a federal legislative amendment in a 2003 appropriations bill to cut its costs. The amendment stated that if the price of organic feed was more than twice the cost of regular feed--which can contain heavy metals, pesticides, and animal byproducts--then livestock producers could feed their animals less costly, nonorganic feed but still label their products organic.
In October 2005, Congress weakened the organic-labeling law despite protests from more than 325,000 consumers and 250 organic-food companies. The law overturns a current court ruling that excluded the use of synthetic ingredients in "organic" foods. It mostly affects processed products such as canned soups and frozen pizza.

The Massachusetts-based Organic Trade Association (OTA), which represents large and small food producers including corporate giants such as Kraft Foods and Archer Daniels Midland Co., supported the amendment. With organic foods being the new gold mine it was just a matter of time for the huge corporations to jump into the picture, and try to make a fortune one-way or the other, even if it means using loopholes to weaken the organic standards. While organic means organic to most people, now we have to be leery of items that are marked organic, like usual it is only a matter of time for some one or somebody to interpret or totally revamp the true meaning of a word in order to make a profit. While revamping the term most people will continue to buy items labeled organic, thinking they are truly purchasing an organic product, while in reality they are buying items that have been altered to fit into a category, and that very same category has been altered a well.
Like usual a good idea of eating healthier, which will cut down on medical costs, in the long run, has to be circumvented by greedy individuals at every turn. The government should set stringent laws on what is actually organic and not allow any wiggle room for interpretation or amendments to the laws.