Two important annoucements recently should be encouraging to farmers in Maine who have tapped into the rapidly growing market in organic produce.

The decision Friday by the Maine Board of Pesticide Control that the case has yet to be made for the need for genetically engineered field corn gives Maine a chance to watch from the sidelines as the experiment in genetics takes place in 47 other states. That is the place that Maine, a leader in organic farming, should remain.

In Washington yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman described proposed regulations governing foods grown or raised without the use of pesticides and other synthetic chemicals or growth hormones. The proposal is further evidence of the commercial interest in organic foods and the confusion spawned by an increasingly esoteric food industry. Though the proposal will not be released until today, the New York Times reports that the regulations would require that raw products be 100 percent organic and that processed foods contain 95 percent organic ingredients to qualify for the Agriculture Department’s organic seal.

Though the proposed rules currently do not cover biotechnology, according to the Times, organic farmers should bet that lobbyists for agribusinesses will be pushing the topic during the 120-day comment period. That means Maine farmers interested in keeping their niche in the market understandable and desirable to consumers should fight to ensure that the rules are not co-opted by the big players.

A danger of genetically engineered foods, points out Maine writer Nicols Fox, author of “Spolied: The Dangerous Truth About a Food Chain Gone Haywire,” is that they try to “short circuit an evolutionary pattern.” Because the industry is still in its infancy, scientists do not know all that happens when a gene from, for instance, a flounder is added to the genetic makeup of a tomato to make it more resistent to freezing. Ms. Fox offers the example of a soybean crossed with a Brazil nut to increase protein levels. Before the new bean was released, fortunately, researchers discovered that the Brazil nut gene also contained the code that triggers serious allergic reactions in people.

The genetically engineered field corn for Maine, proposed by DEKALB Genetics and Novartis Seeds, raised an important further question. Could the widespread presence of Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, in this corn allow harmful bugs to develop resistence to the natural poison? The Environmental Protection Agency has given companies until January 1999 to demonstrate that they have solved this problem. Meantime, the pesticide control board properly concluded that with little gain for being part of this experiment, Maine would do best to wait until more definitive results come in.

Organic products account for only about 1 percent of food sales nationwide, but its sales have grown by more than 20 percent annually since 1990. It now registers $3.5 billion in annual sales, and the Agriculture Department predicts the rate of growth will continue. One reason the industry is growing so quickly is that consumers do not want to have to decide whether the latest laboratory breakthrough is actually safe for them and their families to eat.

Keeping it simple can keep farmers in business.