“Organic” – the new catch phrase

There seems to be a lot more “organic” food available at the grocery stores lately. “Organic” is the new “low-fat” or “sugar-free”. The food vendors certainly have caught on to the evolving trend from consumers that are seeking out an alternative to synthesized artificially flavored pesticide laced foods. While it is encouraging to see this trend in America, we as consumers need to be careful in distinguishing between the true organic foods out there and the marketing gimmicks disguised as “organic” just to sell more junk. You can even buy organic food items at Wal-Mart now. Let’s see what “organic” is really about. According to the site soilassociation.org, organic farming has 3 main features: 1) it severely restricts the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides, 2) organic farmers rely on developing healthy, fertile soil and growing a mixture of crops, 3) animals are raised without the routine use of drugs, antibiotics and wormers. The USDA.gov web site has some guidelines for the organic labeling. If an item has the “USDA ORGANIC” label on it, it has been certified to be at least 95 percent organic. If the product says “made with organic ingredients” on the front label then it contains at least 70 percent organic ingredients. If the product contains less than 70 percent organic ingredients, it will list the specific organic ingredients on the side panel of the item. Only the term “organic” is certified. Words like “natural” apply only to labeling meat and poultry as defined by the federal Agriculture Department. In their case, natural means no artificial or synthetic ingredients, including added hormones, and minimally processed. But “natural” really means nothing for the rest of the foods we buy. Just about every food item has some form of something natural in it somewhere. It has nothing to do with it being organic. A web site worth checking into as a consumer is Organic Consumers Association (organicconsumers.org). They keep an eye on the organic industry and help decipher some of the confusion. There is another certification organization called “Certified Naturally Grown’ (naturallygrown.org). It is a non-profit alternative certification program tailored for small-scale, direct-market organic farmers. The CNG certification standards are based on the USDA Organic Standards, but CNG is not accredited by or affiliated with the USDA. CNG helps with small farmers earning less than $5000 a year who cannot afford the high USDA Organic certification fees and mounds of paperwork. It can be said that the CNG organization holds more true to the organic standards than the USDA. The USDA Organic certified farms tend to be more of the “factory farm” types. These are often owned by large corporations, who many would argue are driven more by profits than consumer and environmental health. CNG certified farmers tend to be smaller, locally owned farms. Their produce will probably be purchased at farmers markets or small specialty grocery stores. For now, the organic world is still very much “buyer beware”.