Organic
- What Does It All Mean?
Richard
Fasching, State Agronomist, USDA/NRCS Montana
The following article
appeared in the “Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nutrition Action
Healthletter,” July/August 2007. Opinions contained in this article
are not necessarily the opinions of the USDA NRCS.
Organic - What Does It All Mean?
To a producer, the word
“organic” might mean healthy soil and crops. To most consumers, it
means no pesticides. How do organic producers defend their corn, grain,
spinach, etc., against pests? Among other things, they rotate crops, use
plant varieties that are resilient to predators, nurture habitats for
the natural enemies of pests, and release helpful bacteria.
Here’s what organic
and other terms mean legally:
- Organic
fruits & vegetables were grown without synthetic
pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or sewage sludge and haven’t
been genetically engineered or irradiated.
- Organic
beef & chicken come from animals that weren’t the
offspring of cloned animals. They were raised on 100% organic
feed, were never given growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs,
and their meat was never irradiated.
- Organic
milk comes from animals that for at least the past 12
months, were fed 100% organic feed and weren’t given antibiotics
or growth hormones like rBST.
- Organic
eggs come from hens that were fed 100% organic feed and
were never given growth hormones or antibiotics.
- Organic
seafood doesn’t mean a thing since the USDA hasn’t
defined the term.
- Cage-free
eggs come from hens that were not confined to cages and
that may or may not have had access to the outdoors. They’re not
necessarily organic.
- Free
range or free roaming poultry
have access to the outdoors, but for no minimum time.
They’re not necessarily organic. Cage free poultry doesn’t mean
anything, since most chickens grown for meat are kept indoors (but
cage-free) until they are transported to slaughter.
- No
hormones administered can appear on beef labels if the
producer can document that the animals were raised without hormones.
Hormone-free is an illegal claim, since all animals produce their
own hormones.
- No
antibiotics added can appear on a label if the producer
can document that the animals were raised without antibiotics.
- Natural
(or All natural) meat or poultry products contain “no
artificial ingredients and are no more than minimally processed.”
They’re not necessarily organic, though some super-markets try to
make them appear to be.
- Access
to the outdoors. All organically raised animals are
supposed to have it. Critics charge that the rules are too vague,
and that animals raised in huge organic operations don’t get to
move around enough outside.
Packaged Foods
- 100%
Organic. All ingredients are organic.
- Organic.
At least 95% of the ingredients are organic.
- Made
with Organic Ingredients. At least 70% of the
ingredients are organic.
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