WASHINGTON - April 30 - A coalition representing nine million U.S. consumers today objected to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new directive that allows milk products from antibiotic-treated cows to be labeled organic. This directive ( http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/GuidanceStatements/AntibioticGuida nce041304.pdf ) and three others were presented as fait accompli by USDA officials Wednesday to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an advisory board to USDA that is concluding a three-day meeting in Chicago today.

"The USDA's new directive allows milk products from dairy cows treated with antibiotics to be marketed as organic after the cow has been under organic management for one year," said Richard Wood, a recent member of the FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee, a member of the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition and Executive Director of Food Animal Concerns Trust. "This new directive makes a mockery of organic standards by undercutting consumers' long held confidence that organic animal products are from animals not treated with antibiotics."

"At the very least, the new directive is a major change to organic standards and should be proposed as a regulatory change subject to public notice and comment, rather than sprung on the organic community without prior public discussion," said Rebecca Goldburg, a senior scientist for Environmental Defense and a member of KAW. Goldburg's remarks were on behalf of KAW, although she is also a member of NOSB.

Routine antibiotic use in livestock and poultry contributes to the global crisis in bacterial infections resistant to antibiotic treatment. A 2003 report by the Institute of Medicine found that this crisis can't be addressed effectively without "substantial efforts" to decrease antibiotic overuse in animals and agriculture, as well as humans.

Keep Antibiotics Working: The Campaign to End Antibiotics Overuse ( http://www.KeepAntibioticsWorking.com ), is a coalition of health, consumer, agricultural, environmental, humane and other advocacy groups with more than nine million members dedicated to eliminating a major cause of antibiotic resistance: the inappropriate use of antibiotics in food animals. While KAW strongly supports the use of antibiotics to treat sick animals if necessary, products from animals that have been treated with antibiotics should not be sold as organic, as the organic standards themselves make quite clear.

"This new directive comes across as a political move by USDA on behalf of larger dairy operations that want to produce organic milk by buying and transitioning a steady stream of nonorganic heifers," concluded Wood. "The USDA is undermining the integrity of organic dairy products as true alternatives to conventional products."

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