One of the up and coming marketing trends among major retailers is the introduction of more organic merchandise. This is especially true in the grocery industry. I suspect the major force driving this shift is public demand. People are becoming more informed about all the unhealthy additives that can be found in plant and animal products mass grown for consumption. And the more people know about such things, the less tolerant they become. Thus the push for more organics.
Organic products, in general, come from plants and animals that have been grown without the addition of artificial chemicals. So organic plants are grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and organic animals are raised without being injected with hormones or antibiotics. Organic foods have also not been bioengineered or irradiated. At least, that’s the simple explanation. It gets just a bit more complicated when you’re reading labels at the grocery store.
Now, I know that there are organic products other than food. We’ll talk about those in other posts. For now, I want to look at food because its a basic necessity of life, and it affects everything about our health.
In the U.S. there are actually three classifications or “levels” of organic foods. These have been defined by the United States Department of Agriculture, in the National Organic Program (NOP). Single ingredient foods, such as fruit or vegetables, will simply be labeled Organic, and many will have the USDA Organic label on them. Multiple ingredient foods may be labeled either 100% Organic, Organic, or Made with Organic Ingredients. 100% Organic means exactly that–all ingredients and handling processes meet the requirements of the NOP, as certified by an approved certifying agency. A food may be labeled as Organic if it contains 95-99% organic ingredients by weight, excluding water and salt. These foods must also be certified by an approved agency. Either 100% Organic or Organic foods may carry the USDA Organic seal, but this isn’t a requirement. The third category, Made with Organic Ingredients, means the food has 70-94% organic ingredients. This, too, must be certified by an approved agency, but the product may not display the USDA Organic seal. Instead, it can list up to three specific organic ingredients on the front of the package.
Any other products may only list organic ingredients on the information panel of the label or box, and may not make any claim that the product itself is organic. Other words you may see on products, such as Natural, Range-free, No Additives, or Hormone-free, are not regulated by any agency, and they aren’t synonymous with Organic. On the other hand, many companies don’t want to go through the cumbersome and potentially expensive process of becoming certified, even though they are essentially following all the same practices. If you think a product looks good, but it doesn’t say organic, make a call to the customer service number. You might be surprised what good information you get.
On a final note, I would encourage you to become as informed as possible without becoming obsessive. Even in the NOP, there are allowable synthetic products that can be used in operations that produce organic foods. Most of these are reasonable, but in some situations, you should be aware of these things. For instance, the drug oxytocin may be used on cows after they give birth. (This is the same drug pregnant women are given to induce labor.) And it’s possible for a certified organic producer to get a variance to use non-organic feed if a situation arises that makes organic feed unavailable. Additionally, synthetic vitamin supplementation is always permitted. For a full list of the allowed substances, have a look at the NOP and scroll down to Subsection G. It makes for interesting reading.
