Organic Beer is it really?

It’s hot! You’re thirsty! And with the "USDA Organic" seal stamped
on its label, you figure it’s fine to reach for an ice cold brewski to
go with your grass fed-organic burger that smells so good on the
grill. So you reach for a “Wild Hop Lager” from
Anheuser-Busch.
But Anheuser-Busch got the organic blessing
even though Wild Hop Lager uses hops
grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed
with pesticides. And they are just one of the
numerous big companies that have jumped
on the $16.9 billion-a-year in sales organic
bandwagon as increasingly aware consumers
call for healthier and more environmentally
sustainable choices.
What’s in Organic
As noted by the Los Angeles Times in early June “with big companies
entering what was formerly a mom-and-pop industry, new
questions have been raised about what exactly goes into organic
food. The USDA has proposed a sweeping rule change that would
allow 38 non-organic ingredients to be used in organic foods.
Because of the broad uses of these ingredients — as spices, colorings
and flavorings, for example — almost any type of manufactured
food could be affected.”
The Organic Consumers Association among others is fighting to
keep organic standards strong. "This proposal is blatant catering to
powerful industry players who want the benefits of labeling their
products 'USDA organic' without doing the work to source organic
materials," said Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the
Organic Consumers Association of Finland, Minn.
Many non-organic ingredients, including hops, are already
being used in organic products, thanks to a USDA interpretation
of the Organic Foods Protection Act of 1990.
This spring the USDA released a proposed list
of 38 ingredients to be allowed in processed
organic foods. In addition to hops, the list
includes 19 food colorings, two starches,
sausage and hot-dog casings and a host of
obscure ingredients, including a sweetener
with the tongue-twisting name of
fructooligosaccharides.
The proposed rule would allow up to 5 percent
of a food product to be made with these ingredients
and still get the "USDA Organic" seal. Even
hops, although a major component of beer's flavor,
is less than 5 percent of the final product,
because the beverage is mostly water. The
Anheuser-Bush company is being allowed by the
USDA to use the chemically grown hops as they
say they can’t source enough organic hops to
make their beer to use the “USDA Organic”
label. But other brewing companies say there are
plenty of organic hops on the market if you are
willing to pay the price.

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