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Organic Food (Part 1) In this part of the article, the following are highlighted:

• What is organic food?
• How to tell if a food is organic ?

What is Organic Food? The National Organic Standards Board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defined organic food by how it cannot be made rather than how it can be made:

• organic food must be produced without the use of sewer-sludge fertilizers, most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic engineering (biotechnology), growth hormones, irradiation and antibiotics.

“Organic” does not mean “natural.” There is no legal definition as to what constitutes a “natural” food. However, the food industry uses the term “natural” to indicate that a food has been minimally processed and is preservative-free. Natural foods can include organic foods, but not all natural foods are organic. Only foods labeled “organic” have been certified as meeting USDA organic standards (or other certifying bodies around the world).
Organic agricultural practices are quite distinct from those of “conventional” farming. Conventional farmers apply chemical fertilizers to the soil to grow their crops, spray with insecticides to protect crops from pests/diseases and use synthetic herbicides to control weed growth whilst Organic farmers feed the soil, build soil matter with natural fertilizer to grow their crops, use insect predators, mating disruption, traps and barriers to protect crops from pests and diseases, make use of crop rotation, mechanical tillage and hand-weeding, as well as cover crops, mulches, flame weeding and other management methods to control weed growth. At the very last resort, organic farmers may apply certain botanical or other non-synthetic pesticides (for example, rotenone and pyrethrins, both of which are from plants).

The meat, dairy products and eggs that organic farmers produce are from animals that are fed organic feed and allowed access to the outdoors. Organic livestock must be kept in living conditions that accommodate the natural behavior of the animals. For instance, ruminants (including cows, sheep and goats) must have access to pasture. Although they may be vaccinated against disease, organic livestock and poultry may not be given antibiotics, hormones or medications in the absence of illness. Instead, livestock diseases and parasites are controlled largely through preventive measures such as rotational grazing, balanced diet, sanitary housing and stress reduction.

Next how can we tell if a Food is Organic?Simply just look for the word “organic” on vegetables or pieces of fruit, or on the sign above the organic produce display.

The word “organic” may also appear on packages of meat, cartons of milk or eggs, cheese and other single-ingredient foods. Foods labeled as:

• 100 percent organic- must contain only organic ingredients.
• => 70-percent organic- made with organic ingredients.
• Labeled as Organic - must have at least 95-percent organic ingredients, by weight or fluid volume, excluding water and salt.
• In most cases bear the seal “USDA Organic.” But as its use is voluntary, companies may choose not to display the seal.
• If a food is labeled “transitional,” it means that the farmer produced it during the three-year conversion period from conventional to organic.

Incidentally in US, anyone who knowingly sells or labels a product “organic” that is not produced and handled in accordance with these regulations can face a civil penalty of up to $10,000.

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