Health & Wellness

A site visitor recently requested some information on organics, so as promised, I’m delivering on-demand information. This post is the first in a series on organics, so come back tomorrow for more — enjoy!

Everyone knows what organic means — 100 percent pure, all-natural, right? This is true…sometimes. The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) organic certification process actually allows for several levels of organic percentages, and new groups have been emerging to offer confusingly similar alternatives to USDA organic certification. It can be a daunting task picking out healthy foods with complete confidence, unless we pick it off the vine, and even in that case, it’s got to be a vine out in the middle of nowhere to be sure that there weren’t any artificial  pesticides sprayed on it.

What does it mean to be organic? Here’s how Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines organic: “of, relating to, or containing carbon compounds.” By the simplest definition then, you can see how it only requires one carbon molecule to be considered organic, highlighting just one reason why the USDA needed to setup and develop a regulated organic certification program. Prior to the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, virtually any product could bear an organic claim. Now, according to the USDA, organic is:

• a claim about how food is produced and handled
• not a content claim
• does not represent that a product is “free” of something
• not a judgement about the quality and safety of any product
• not meant to imply product superiority   

Join me tomorrow for the next organics installment.

Thanks for reading, 
Andrew