The End of Organics?

Organic food and healthy eating have a lot in common. It's not only about the lack of pesticide residue, but the fact that highly processed foods are rarely organic. If you choose organic foods, by default you end up eating a lot more whole foods (if you can afford it that is).

Popularity of organic food is slowly growing - particularly among some sectors:

Since last year, sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18 percent, double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the marketing information company ACNielsen.

This report tells how many mainstream retailers are beginning to sell organic foods. Even McDonald's in New England are trialling fair trade organic coffee.

Fair trade organic coffee at McDonald's?

The trouble is - as organics becomes more mainstream - the principles behind it will become more compromised. More and more "synthetics" are being allowed into certified organic food (see NY Times via NutriSup Law).

Many in the organic industry say they are willing to allow some use of synthetics in organic food. Since 2002, the National Organic Standards Board, a 15-member panel of advisers appointed by the Agriculture Department, has served as the gatekeeper for such substances. In that time, 38 have been approved, many of them relatively harmless ingredients like baking powder, pectin, ascorbic acid and carbon dioxide
But Joseph Mendelson, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, a liberal advocacy group, says that the proposed legislation will open the door to a range of other chemicals and artificial materials, including a large category of so-called food contact substances - things like boiler additives, disinfectants and lubricants with unpronounceable names.

Is it the thin end of the wedge? Will organic truly be "organic" (who decides what organic means)? Or is this just purist pettiness?

Written By J. Foster

MORE: Food,

| More

2 Comments

Jarrett

I think that there are already measures to define "level of organicness".

Organic = 75% of this product is all-natural or organic.
95% Organic = 95%, pretty easy.
100% Organic = 100%, still pretty easy.

It's a way for products to get that "Organic" label without being 100% organic.

I think that in the end, organic will still be good. seems to me that no matter how much you mess with it, organic should still be better than non-organic food. (not that it isn't within the realm of possibilities that corruption will lead to organic standards being worse than normal food, I'm just hopeful)

My hope comes from local sources. Marin county in California has its own organic standards that are higher than normal organic standards. You can get certified Marin Organic (http://www.marinorganic.org/) if you live there, and their certification is independent of what the department of agriculture says. this sort of local involvement in these sort of health issues is on the rise.

basically, if you don't trust the certification, try to find a farmer that you DO trust and buy from them.