From: isd602@co.santa-cruz.ca.us
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 6:05 PM
To: MarketingClaim
Subject: Docket #LS-05-09



I would like to provide, for your consideration, my comments on the USDA's draft
grass fed standard, docket #LS-05-09.

Many of us are repelled by the way Congress and the USDA truckle to industrial
food producers, and doubt that any good can come of working with federal
standards. I'm not one of these people, though I'm getting closer to it after
the way the standard for organic chicken was manipulated for the benefit of
Georgia farmers. I'm aware that this effort to mislead failed, but its cynicism
dazzled me. We aren't all complete morons, you know.

It appears that this proposed standard is another example of toadying to
industrial farmers. However, this is another opportunity for USDA to demonstrate
that, against all the evidence, it doesn't seek to mislead consumers for the
benefit of its corporate clients.

Specifically, I am upset that the proposed standard for grass-fed animals
doesn't specify that the grass be growing naturally in pasture, at the time it's
eaten. If this proposed rule is adopted, and if producers use processed grass
for indoor feeding, then many of the public will be misled into thinking the
animals are pastured when they aren't.

This cynical manipulation of terms can be exposed, as the Georgia farmers'
effort was, and will further lower the USDA's credibility. It provides evidence
that the USDA and your industrial clients "don't get it." Count on me to try to
expose this sham, if the standard is adopted in its present form. I am coming to
believe that we should give up the attempt to form federal government standards
and that the organic movement must create its own.

Thank you.
 
  Sincerely,
  Roger Mastrude
  Santa Cruz, California