by Barbara Minton
(Health Secrets) Organic food is now the fastest growing segment of U.S. agriculture. In 2012, the value of retail sales from organic food was estimated at more than $27 billion. According to the Food Marketing Institute, more than half of Americans now buy some organic food product at least once a month. Sales of organic fruits and vegetables are continuing to grow at double digit rates, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy. Clearly people are believing that buying organic means real food value, and cutting organic items from their budgets is just not an option even for those struggling to make ends meet.
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What does it mean to be organic?
According to the National Organic Standards Board:
“Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.
“The word organic is a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act. The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole.
“Organic agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water.
“Organic food handlers, processors and retailers adhere to standards that maintain the integrity of organic agricultural products. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.”
This definition gently shades some meanings most people associate with the term organic, such as the use of non-chemical fertilizers and pesticides as the food is being grown. While Canada’s recently instituted organic regulations specifically prohibit synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically modified organisms (GMO), the term as it is used in the U.S. is somewhat different.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) puts it this way: “Organic crops are raised without using most conventional pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, or sewage sludge-based fertilizers. Animals raised on an organic operation must be fed organic feed and given access to the outdoors. They are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.”
The USDA then allows a sliding scale that reduces some of the rigors of their own definition. According to this scale, only goods that are made entirely of certified organic materials and methods are labeled as “100 percent organic”, while those whose makeup is only 95 percent pure can be labeled as organic. Both categories provide a USDA seal. Salt and water are exempted from consideration as ingredients.
There is another category that permits the use of up to 30 percent non-organic materials and methods in production, but which may be legally labeled “made with organic ingredients”. Products that are less than 70 percent organic are not allowed to call themselves organic in any way. However, organic ingredients may be listed as such.
Just reading these definitions and finding out what cannot be included in a product labeled as organic is a powerful inducement to buy only organic products.
Organic farming offers a difference
In the U.S. alone, more than one billion pounds of pesticides are released into the environment as a result of non-organic practices. Some of these are very persistent and remain in the environment long after application. Extensive pesticide residue testing by the USDA found that conventionally produced fruits and vegetables are three to over four times more likely to contain pesticide residue than organic produce, and these are eight to eleven times more likely to contain multiple residues and residues at levels three to ten times higher than corresponding residues found in organic samples.