Fri, 06 Mar 2009

It’s Organic, but Does That Mean It’s Safer?

Talk about diluting a brand! USDA has effectively made the moniker "organic" meaningless.

MOST of the chicken, fruit and vegetables in Ellen Devlin-Sample’s kitchen are organic. She thinks those foods taste better than their conventional counterparts. And she hopes they are healthier for her children.

(link) [New York Times]

/Agriculture | 1 writeback | permanent link

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On 3/7/2009 13:50:17
Diana wrote

I make body products for a living, and because of the impact they can have, I've spent a lot of time reading and doing what I can to understand FDA regulations. While the FDA is rife with serious problems, their biggest two are severe understaffing (leading to things getting through that should never be approved, ill thought out food pyramids, etc.) and very little real law enforcement power, making an FDA fine, etc. extremely random and bizarre. I try to think of the FDA staffed by mostly decent people who are doing the best they can in what has to be daily working hell. The Certified Organic label from the USDA is actually one of the better programs they have - but it does have to be CERTIFIED organic. And it's absolutely true that organic is no guarantee that an item is healthier, it is simply a guarantee that chemicals of non-natural origin were not used in the growth and processing of your food. Usually this IS healthier, but there are a few times when I've regretted not opting for something that was pasteurized or had been subjected to some other non-organic process (I've survived multiple food poisonings.) Labels including "natural" "organic" and "green" have only ever been marketing terms - it's always up to you to read the ingredients label. I would say that USUALLY organic and natural is better - there are natural things that poison you, and given overharvestings of everything from echinacea to sandalwood, sometimes the non-organic replacements while inferior are preferable to having nothing, since overuse all too often stems from the overenthusiasm of naturalists. So yes, the organic label is troublesome, but it's lack of meaning isn't actually new.

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