Saturday July 18, 2009, 2:00 am
You are in the grocery store staring at salad dressings. You are craving a balsamic vinaigrette for your dinner salad tonight, and there are about seven different brands from which to choose.

A brand you like is on sale. It makes an organic version of the dressing and a non-organic version, and both are the same price today. If you are like me, this is a no-brainer. You pick the organic version, right?

Well, yes, but it turns out there may not be much difference between the two.

A report in the Washington Post July 3 outed the USDA on its relaxation of the rules that govern organic labeling.

According to the report, written by reporters Kimberly Kindy and Lyndsey Layton, "5 percent of a USDA-certified organic product can consist of non-organic substances, provided they are approved by the National Organic Substances Board. That list has grown from 77 to 245 substances since it was created in 2002."

This is mostly do to lobbyists who represent big food companies seeking to capitalize on the growing interest in organic foods. By 2002, most of the small companies and farms that organic standards were implemented to protect had been bought up by major producers. Kraft owns Boca Foods. Kellogg owns Morningstar Farms, and Coca-Cola owns 40 percent of Honest Tea, according to the Post.

Synthetic ingredients began creeping into "organic" foods because these companies required them for large scale production.

As a consequence, here are a few ingredients you might find in your organic -- and, incidentally, more expensive -- food: mercury, PCBs, and hexane (a potential neurotoxin used to produce synthetic fatty acids).

They don't exactly conjure images of green pastures.

The Post also published the following quote by Joe Smillie, vice president of the organics certifying firm Quality Assurance International (yes, private firms can certify a product as organic). I print it here in its entirety because my jaw dropped when I read it.

"People are really hung up on regulations. I say, 'Let's find a way to bend that one, because it's not important' . . . What are we selling? Are we selling health food? No. Consumers, they expect organic food to be growing in a greenhouse on Pluto. Hello? We live in a polluted world. It isn't pure. We are doing the best we can."

Not good enough. Consumers pony up for organic food because they do not want to eat PCBs.

There are, in fact, three levels of organic certification: "100 percent organic," "organic," and "made with organic ingredients," which requires that a food contain 70 percent organic ingredients. Unfortunately "organic" is meaningless, and I don't see the point of eating something "made with organic ingredients."

Evidence continues to mount in favor of eating locally grown food. Shopping your farmers market and getting to know who grows your food -- or better yet, growing your own -- allows you to provide your own organic certification.

The government is not going to do it for you.

Saturday July 18, 2009, 2:01 am
Comment posted at the end of the article:

Posted by OrganicTrade on 07/15/09 at 1:17PM

There are several inaccurate statements in this post.

First,the federal organic standards have not been "relaxed." The organic industry and the Organic Trade Association have long pushed for national organic regulations that consumers can rely on. As a result, organic agriculture and products remain the most strictly regulated, as well as the fastest growing, food system in
the United States today.

Second, synthetic ingredients have not secretly "crept" into organic foods.There is a very specific process that materials must go through before they are permitted for inclusion in organic products. This process, which involves a citizen advisory board as well as public input, ensures that materials are not haphazardly permitted for use in organic production and reinforces the principles of transparency and integrity around which the organic system was built.

Third, the term "organic" is not meaningless. As you point out here, the term has a very specific meaning. Organic production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers. Organically produced foods also must be produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering and other excluded practices, sewage sludge, or irradiation. Cloning animals or using their products is considered inconsistent with organic practices. Organic foods are also minimally processed without artificial ingredients, preservatives, or irradiation to maintain the integrity of the food.

Backed by a system of strict regulations requiring third-party inspections of farm fields and processing facilities, detailed-record keeping, and periodic testing of soil and water, as well as compliance with local, state and federal health standards, the organic label not only provides consumers assurance that they organic products they buy are indeed, organic, and are governed by consistent, enforceable standards, but also serves is a symbol of integrity in which consumers can trust.

Saturday July 18, 2009, 2:02 am
Interesting issue here... Who is right? Who is wrong? How long is the ballgame going to go on, until consumers can get real and dependable information about their products?

Monday July 20, 2009, 11:47 am
Thanks Michelle! The latest info I got is that WHOLE FOODS is going to help certify if foods and products are organic. I personally feel they should allow someone with no bias to certify authenticity of organic-ness! No food maker will say their foods are bad.