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What
is "organic"? Well, it's a set of stringent standards
against which a food wishing to call itself "organic" is held
-- under great scrutiny and subject to random and regular inspections
by independent agencies that are accredited by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. There are a lot of materials and techniques which
are not allowed anywhere in the production stream, from the fields
and farm to the handling, manufacturing and retailing. All synthetic
herbicides and pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics are disallowed.
No sulfites, sulfates, nitrates or nitrites are allowed. A careful
and limited list defines what substances may be used in growing
and producing food that may be labeled organic.
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There
are also, for example, rules specific to how long a field must
be out of conventional production before organic production can
occur, how cows must be fed and treated in order to claim organic
milk, and how any animal must be conceived, raised, and fed in
order to be claimed as organic meat.
What's the point? The point is: good ecology. Organic production methods don't harm our environment as do conventional methods (no pesticide or herbicide run-off into rivers, for example). A healthier earth translates to healthier people, but, maybe most importantly, a healthy earth is something everyone wants to sustain and to pass along to each generation. |
