The Agriculture Department says its organic panel includes a broad range of members who reach conclusions independently.
Board Makeup
"USDA strives to appoint members to the Board that reflect the diversity of the U.S. organic agriculture and the American people," says Soo Kim, an agency spokeswoman.
"I think that organic increasingly is looking to compete with conventional on the shelf," says Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington-based nonprofit that supports the use of alternatives to pesticides.
The DHA in Horizon's milk is made by Martek Biosciences, a U.S. unit of Heerlen, Netherlands-based Koninklijke DSM NV, a food supplement business that also manufactures plastics and resins used in body armor, auto parts and biodiesel products.
Martek's algae-based DHA first appeared in organic food about a decade ago as an additive to infant formula.
DHA Challenge
When the use of the ingredient was challenged by the Cornucopia Institute, an organic food advocacy group, Barbara Robinson, then-head of the National Organic Program, ruled in 2006 that DHA could stay in organics without undergoing review by the standards board because government regulators considered it an essential nutrient.
The following year, Horizon introduced its line of milk featuring Martek's DHA.
In 2010, the Agriculture Department reversed the decision, ruling that DHA and 11 other additives didn't fit regulators' "essential" definition and needed approval by the organic standards board.