Organic Food - Part I

By Noah

While walking through the aisles of the supermarket a few days ago I noticed there were a number of items on the shelves that had the word ORGANIC plastered on the side.  I considered this bold claim, and decided it was a strange label to put on a food.  In high school, they taught me the word “organic” meant living, and that “non-organic” meant….non living.  To me the case was clear: lettuce vs. cue-tips… potato chips vs. my driveway.  So while staring at a can of “organically certified tomatoes” I wondered if this was simply stating the obvious.  Aren’t all tomatoes certifiably … from a tomato plant? 
Aren’t all plants alive?  Am I missing something here?  Realistically, hasn’t all food come from a living organism to some degree?  Beef, pork, corn, potatoes, mushrooms - all living; tea, coffee, sugar, milk - all from something that is living; even cookies, chocolate bars, mustard and dunkaroos came from or were processed from some type of living organism.

So why is this head of lettuce so special?

I’m sure we’re all quite aware of the growing trend in North America, and across the globe to start focusing diets on “healthier” choices – much of which includes filling up the grocery cart with Organically Certified Products, as opposed to those other, dare-I-say, non-organic foods.  But this is a concept that I find some-what strange, and frankly it concerns me that some of the foods I eat may actually be certifiably NON-organic.  So, I want to get to the bottom of this.  What exactly does the organic stamp on the side of a package of spaghetti, or on a carton of milk truly mean?  And where does it come from?

A certified Organic food is a food that was grown or raised, harvested, processed, packaged and in all ways handled following specific guidelines set out in the Canadian Organic Standards (COS) outlined by the Government of Canada, or by a set of guidelines the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has developed.  These guidelines focus on promoting sustainable agriculture and farming procedures by regulating the methods and materials used so that the food meets the ‘organic’ standard.  A good definition of the term organic as it is used in today’s grocery stores can be found on the Canadian Organic Growers website at http://www.cog.ca .  Essentially, we’re talking about food production that is based on principles supporting healthy practices for the land, animals and humans, which hope to “increase the quality and the durability of the environment”.  This means minimizing soil degradation and erosion, decreasing pollution, optimizing biological productivity, maintaining soil fertility, biological diversity, recycling materials, and relying on renewable resources.  This certification is then given out, by tertiary inspection parties which examine all points on the food train – from farm to supermarket - to ensure that the food meets the standards.

Pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemical and natural agents which are used by farmers, packagers, and producers all aim to increase the yield of a crop or livestock, get it out of the farm and onto the shelves faster, and ensure that they will stay on the shelves and in our fridges for longer.  Food is certified organic when pesticides, fertilizers, and other agents are left out of the production process, out of the environment, and thus out of our guts.  This seems like a win-win to me; the government regulates the way in which this healthier food is handled and grown, we get a certain assurance about the quality and health of the food, and the land and animals get a certain assurance that sustainable and eco-friendly farming practices are being used.  Seems to me that the COS and USDA Organic Guidelines aren’t actually labeling a food as ‘organic’ in the traditional sense – but instead their helping inform the public of the way that the foods we’re stuffing in our mouths are grown, and made.

So why does this seem like a new fad?  Why is there all of a sudden this push for organic foods, rendering the rest of the supermarket a landscape of unhealthy, chemically altered alternatives?  My entire childhood I never thought twice about this issue, and all of sudden I’m being bombarded with images and ideas about healthier sustainable agriculture, and why that’s good for me and the planet.  Maybe as a society we’re simply becoming more conscientious about what we’re eating.  But I don’t get how or why there’s a duality in the supermarket, why there’s even an option.  Unhealthy lettuce that has pesticides, or healthy lettuce that is organic…

I still feel like I’m missing something here.

Maybe it’s time to take a trip to “Whole Foods” in Yorkville.  I think I really need to get down to the meat and potatoes of this issue, go to the heart of it all and see what all this hub-bub about organic foods really is.

Click Here for Organic Food Part II