US Department of Agriculture (USDA; Washington, DC) officials late last year adopted long-debated rules and standards for producing and labeling organic foods, to take effect this month. Among other practices, the rules specifically prohibit the use of genetic engineering methods in the production of foods eligible for the organic label—a decision made following more than 275,000 comments from the public urging USDA to prohibit GM organisms from receiving an “organic” classification (Nat. Biotechnol. 17, 217, 2000). In announcing the finalized rules, former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman was careful to delineate how consumers should regard the new organic label, calling it “a marketing tool. . .not a statement about food safety.” The value of this marketing tool is difficult to overstate, in that the organic sector of the food and agriculture industry is already churning out some $6 billion per year and still growing.