HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - Organic beef producers predict the U.S. mad cow scare will boost demand for their meat, which comes from animals fed only milk, grasses and grains from birth to slaughter.

Mad cow disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, is believed to be spread through cattle feed containing protein or bone meal from infected cows or sheep. Although the government banned feeding cattle such products in 1997, organic food advocates say the law has loopholes and is poorly enforced.

U.S. organic beef standards, which took effect in October 2002, provide for certification of producers whose practices have passed muster with either a state or private inspector. The standards include an all-vegetable diet once the animal is weaned.

``We will now see a huge increase in the demand'' for organic beef, which currently accounts for no more than 1 percent of U.S. beef sales, predicted Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, of Little Marais, Minn.

Nick Maravell, owner of Nick's Organic Farm, said he sold all the beef from his small, but growing, Black Angus herd in Adamstown, Md., almost immediately after the autumn slaughter. Maravell, vice chairman of the Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association, said he expects next year's crop of six animals to go just as fast.

Chicago-based Dakota Beef Co. claims to be the nation's largest organic producer, with 25 farms and processors under contract to produce beef that will start showing up in national supermarket meat cases in 2004.

Spokesman Seldon Moreland wouldn't predict the sales impact of the mad cow news, but said: ``I can 100 percent assure you that certified organic beef is free of possible infection from BSE.''

The same claim is made by some non-organic producers, including Denver-based Coleman Natural Products Inc. Company chairman Mel Coleman Jr. said the company also insists on an all-vegetable diet but not on organic feed, which must be certified as free from herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Some say the organic advocates are using the mad cow news to create panic over the food supply. The Center for Consumer Freedom, a coalition that includes mainstream restaurants and food producers, says the Organic Consumers Association is run by ``radical social activists.''

``These activists are clearly hoping to drive U.S. shoppers away from the grocery meat counter and toward more expensive organic and so-called 'natural' options,'' said David Martosko, research director for the center.