1 Book Chapter in: Routing the Opposition, Social Movements, Public Policy and Democracy, D. Meyer (ed.) 2006 University of Minnesota Press. CREATING CREDIBLE EDIBLES: The Organic Agriculture Movement and the Emergence of U.S. Federal Organic Standards Mrill Ingram, University of Wisconsin mingram@wisc.edu Helen Ingram, University of California at Irvine hingram@uci.edu Overview When the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its proposed rules on organic food production for public comment in 1997, the response was very large -- and largely negative. In the months following the release and invitation to comment, over a quarter of a million letters, postcards and emails poured in from individuals, farmers, traders, environmentalists, scientists and consumers, marking the largest public response ever to any USDA proposed regulations. What captured the attention of so many who commented on the draft rule, was the inclusion of the use of genetically modified organisms, irradiation and sewage sludge as acceptable organic practice. The majority of the quarter of a million commenters voiced a decidedly negative reaction to these three aspects of the draft regulation. People wrote that they were “shocked” and “outraged,” that the USDA had offered a “fatally flawed” proposal, an “insult to the intelligence of the organic community,” and was trying to “hijack organic agriculture.” Edward Brown, produce manager at Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis, summed it up for many when he said, “they have no interest in providing our organic community with a historically significant and correct rule...they erase the lines that divide conventional and organic agriculture. We didn't realize the USDA language would benefit corporate agriculture and give them a beachhead into the organic movement,” (Schmelzer 1998, 28). The USDA got the message, or at least part of it, and responded to many of the comments, removing the offending three provisions, and making other requested revisions to the proposed rule. A new draft rule moved through another round of comment in 2000 (the second version received almost 45,000 comments), and a final rule was published in the Federal Register in December of 2000. Ten years after the Organic Food Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) authorized federal organic regulation, the alternative agriculture community achieved a set of federal standards for organic agriculture – standards that not only establish unified rules for the