Really? I eat lots of organic food and have previously researched this, I tried google and its very easy.
Pick up any organic product. It has a sticker "USDA Organic" with white on top and green on bottom. Wikipedia has a great article on "National Organic Program" which is run by the USDA. The NOP website is at:
The blanket reg is CFR 205.105 which references each class of substance separately. Its like the overall flowchart. Then other regs list specific stuff. Like "205.603 Synthetic substances allowed for use in organic livestock production."
So CFR 205.603 says you can use ethanol as a disinfectant only but not in the food, so no white lightning in the food bucket. Aspirin is OK. Vaccines as a blanket order are OK.
(whoops edited to add I think you want CFR 205.601 Synthetic substances allowed for use in organic crop production. Whatever. Nothing is really unexpected in these CFRs and for a guy with a chemistry background I think some rules are a little weird (Ethanol is synthetic and allowed, but Arsenic is non-synthetic and forbidden? Really?) but the writing style should be understandable by the general public)
I a nutshell, the legal definition of organic (in U.S.) means that organic foods are produced using non-synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. In other words, if the FDA (EPA/USDA? Not really sure what organization handles it) classifies a pesticide as organic, then it's allowable for organic certification in the U.S.
Anyone know the rules for "organic" foods in terms of pesticides, fertilizers, etc?