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70 - 100% Organic

posted by Terri Hall-Jackson Oct 15, 2009 9:04 am
70 - 100% Organic
10 comments

Did you know that there are food items that display the USDA organic seal that are not 100 percent organic?  There is a range of “organic-ness” that is approved by the National Organic Program. Read the label carefully to determine how organic your food really is:

100% Organic: These products can only contain organically produced ingredients and should display the USDA organic label.

Organic: These products contain at least 95 percent organic ingredients (by weight).  The remaining ingredients are non-organic, but have been approved by the National Organic Program.

Made with Organic Ingredients: At least 70 percent of the ingredients in these items are organic, three of which can be listed on the front of the package.  The remaining ingredients must be approved by the National Organic Program.  You won’t find the USDA seal on these items.

If you see the USDA organic seal, know that the product is at least 95 percent organic.

For produce, meat, poultry and dairy products: in order to bear the USDA organic seal, these items must be produced without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, antibiotics, irradiation, genetic engineering, and sewage sludge.  While meat-producing chickens are allowed to be confined, egg-producing chickens and other animals must have access to the outdoors.  All meat-producing animals must be fed 100 percent organic feed free of growth hormones and animal byproducts.

More on Basics (54 articles available)
More from Terri Hall-Jackson (59 articles available)

10 comments

10 comments

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10 comments add your comment
Adam R.

Thanks for sharing such nice article here. It is very dangerous to buy anything without having some knowledge. It is something unique. It is very informative and hence people who will come across this site will gain lot of information. I am very glad to being a part of your site! I will visit this site in future too.


r4ds

megan m.

I believe all this information from other things that I've read. However, you provide no source as to where you learned this information. It is always helpful to provide a source, so these kinds of articles can be shown to people and not have them blow it off as made up.
Thanks.

Taz D.
  • Taz D. says
  • Oct 18, 2009 1:01 PM

this is, of course, a matter of agribusiness sabotage. an obvious solution would be to keep the green tag for the real thing and a yellow tag stating 'semi-organic.' otherwise, the label becomes meaningless; which is exactly what the frankenphood folks want.

btw... must watch what you say here in the land of, haha, free speech. the 'animal and environmental terrorist act,' was sponsored by jerkk GOP senator sensenbrenner and co-sponsored by that neocon wench hillary clinton. as if that wasn't bad enough, they rushed a voice vote to get it passed right after xmas break when there were some 14 senators in attendance, then rushed it over to the house for the same fake 'win.' this bill is one of the truly crazy bills basking in the warmth of the sham 'war on terror the government loves to death. the bill provides for imprisonment (at gitmo?) and massive fines for any activity which costs a company or industry more than $500 in what are determined to be 'wrongful damages.' this includes reportage of facts which the industry lawyers and 'experts' seemingly prove are false or 'misleading.'

now consider the series of shows that oprah did in the early part of the century in which she lambasted the beef industry on several fronts. the beef people slammed her with lawsuits at the time but she won. now would she win? terrorist oprah? say it aint so.

Catherine Turley

i've always wondered if a small amount of non-organic ruins the benefits of an otherwise organic product. i suppose, environmentally, you're still supporting organic farming even if you're ingesting a toxic product.

Nellie K. A.

I've bought food that is either 100% or about 75%. The others either say natural, presevative free, gluten-free, with no dairy products, or no high fructose corn syrup

Nellie K. A.

I've bought 100% or about 75% foods or the ones that say natural, no preservatives, gluten-free......

Richard B.

It seems these days you can't buy anything, without triple checking what the hell they put in the product, and then when you read the ingredient your still none the wiser, unless of course your a chemist. There is no way that you can guarantee what you consume unless you produce it yourself
and of course all the ingredient's, impossible in to days world
and these big corporations know it, so they carry on unchecked by any regulatory body of public services. My only piece of advice is to refrain from purchasing any of there
so called food products until they get the message or go out of business. Either way will suit me. Yours Sincerely.

Marissa H.

I buy certain cereals that state they are X % organic. I am OK with this because it's still better than non-organic and at least they are honest about it -- I know what I'm getting.

We have chickens in our back yard and I feed them organic chicken feed, but they also get house scraps, which may or may not be organic (our bread isn't, for example, and they get toast crusts). I do not give them any meat scraps of any kind. I figure our eggs are maybe 90% organic, and I feel good about that.

Nancy W.

Dam shame that we are even sold food that isn't natural and is tampered with, seems like everything that is touched by the capitalists and corporations becomes corruptted.

Joel Saeks

To me this is one of the few times that things are black and white it is either organic 100% or it isn't.

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