What does organic mean anyway?

If you are like me, you want to eat food that is good for you, not just taste good. I want to make sure that I put the best stuff in my body. I want to feed my family food that is free from chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and anything else that is potentially added (either intentionally or unintentionally) by the producer. So I look for the organic label on my food. But what does that mean, really?

The term organic refers to how the food is produced. Generally, consumers think of fruits, vegetables, and grains that are grown without pesticides and herbicides, and dairy products and meat raised without hormones and antibiotics.

And that general assumption is mostly correct. But it is more than just a few simple rules to ensure that the product is all-natural.  The short answer is that organic means all-natural. If that is good enough for you, then skip down to the warning. If you want more detail, keep reading! A food labeled as organic does assure the consumer that the food is raised naturally. Along with no added chemicals, it guarantees that no irradiation or bioengineering is used in the production of your food.  In addition, organically raised animal food products are to be raised in a humane manner. There are benefits that will last
much longer than your current family’s health if you choose to consume food that
is organic.

I will go into detail of exactly how in a later post.
          
WARNING: the following paragraph is boring. 

You know it has to be boring because there is a foot note at the end of the paragraph (see it down there? You did just look, didn’t you?). Hang in there; I have to get through the
boring stuff to make a point.

The United States began to certify agriculture items as organic shortly after the Organic Food Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) was passed. National standards were developed and required for food producers to label their food as organic.

This was accomplished via The National Organic Program (NOP). The NOP was founded by the Unites States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a program to require agriculture products that carry the organic label meet the rules and regulations of the USDA to be labeled as organic. Some of the recent activities of the NOP include releasing final rulings on compost and vermicopost (the use of worms to turn waste into fertilizer), wild crop harvesting, and the use of chlorine in the handling of organic products. [i]
          
Even though the USDA and NOP create the rules of organic agriculture in the United States, they are not the organizations that actually certify products as organic. The USDA accredits state, private, and even foreign organizations to be able to certify that organic production and handling practices meet national standards.

But here is a little tidbit of information that you might find interesting. If any business sells less than $5,000 a year in organic products, they do not have to be certified. They may still label their products as organic, but they must still follow the USDA standards. The reason why I labeled organic in italics above is because a business can have millions of dollars of non-organic products, but if they only sell $4,999 worth of organic products, they do not have to become certified. 

My question is, who is going to monitor that they are following the USDA standards?
          
This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to organic food products and the regulations behind them. If you have any specific questions regarding organic foods, or sustainable foods in general, please ask. I’d be happy to answer any questions. 

Thanks for reading!