FYI - "... We are facing a crisis of confidence in the USDA organic program. People are losing faith, turning to 'local' over 'organic', because they no longer trust what the organic seal stands for. ..." Hydroponic products under the label of "Organic" is a major contributor to this crisis.

Hydroponics does not share the soil-based foundation necessary to support the original Organic Standards of the farmers who co-created the original standards.

The "Organic" seal is financially attractive to large non-organic commercial growers because of the ready-built market that they can have immediate access to simply by having this seal. This is now the case with the big hydroponic growers. Hydroponics does not share the soil-based foundation of the farmers who co-created the original Organic Standards and for Hydroponics to continue to be allowed access to soil-based Organic Standards is undermining the "confidence in the USDA organic program"! Hydroponic products are indistinguishable in stores from the traditional soil-grown organic products. Consequently the traditional Organic Farmers in the United States of America now need the support of the American people to save the Organic Standards from continued compromise.

"When we started writing petitions three years ago, we thought that it would be a simple thing to bring attention to the ongoing organic certification of hydroponics. We thought that once everybody heard about it, the loophole would be quickly fixed. Surely it was an oversight that allowed hydroponic production into organic certification. Changing this has turned out to be a bigger challenge than we thought. For one thing, there was much more money involved than we realized. Hydroponic organic sales in the US this year will probably exceed $200,000,000.":
http://us10.campaign-archive2.com/?u=49b011e822aefbbeb68709181&id=6d58cca62d&e=d273047ed0

Organizations that signed a petition for a moratorium against the inclusion of hydroponics as an acceptable agricultural standard for Organic labeling purposes include:

Cornucopia Institute,
Biodynamic Association,
Demeter Association.

(For more information see: http://www.curezone.org/Blogs/fm.asp?i=1576391)