Tips on buying and eating organic food

What is organic food?

Ok, your first question might be, "Isn't all human food organic? We can't eat plastic or titanium." In that sense, you're correct. However, much of the food grown (fruits and vegetables) or raised (livestock and birds) is "enhanced" (term is used loosely) by a variety of artificial and synthetic methods.

Add to this the widespread use of commercial pesticides and you begin to see the reasons many people have interest in healthier alternatives.

To be classified as organic food, products should be grown without using commercial pesticides or artificial fertilizers. They should then be processed without the use of any food additives.  

In addition, livestock should be raised without receiving regular antibiotics or growth hormones. As you might imagine, genetically altered or modified livestock are also prohibited from earning the classification as organic food.

Food items passing these major tests and meeting some other specific requirements can be classified as organic products. National governments typically control the certification of food as organic products.

In addition to the United States, Canada, and the European Union, many other countries have set standards to define and certify products that can be marketed and sold as organic food. This allows buyers to have confidence that food marketed as organic products have passed all tests for certification.

Where can I buy organic food?

For some years, you had to search for organic products. They were typically produced by smaller family farms rather than larger farming conglomerates. As you might expect, production output was relatively low and organic food prices were quite high. You usually had to search for small natural or organic food stores, often not necessarily in your neighborhood.

In recent years, however, things have changed for the better. As consumers demanded more varieties and higher volumes of organic food, producers listened. As larger farming organizations decided to grow and process organic products, the number of choices has continued to increase.

Another product of consumer demand has resulted in the number and size of organic food stores and the volume of choices now available in large supermarket chain stores.

Walk into most Safeway, Stop & Shop, and other supermarkets and you'll find many choices of organic products, including fruits, vegetables, cereals, and all forms of beef, pork, chicken, and fish.

Natural product stores, like Whole Foods Market, the largest natural and organic food seller in the U.S., have added many new locations. Organic food co-ops, health food stores, and online outlets are multiplying daily.

If you're interested in buying organic products, you'll also be pleased to learn that prices are coming down. Along with increased competition, farmers are finding better, more efficient ways to grow, process, raise, and deliver organic food to the market. As the supply of natural and organic food increases, the prices tend to decrease.

You will still normally pay a bit more for certified organic food, but the price difference is often quite small. For example, you might pay an additional fifty cents to one dollar more for a "bunch" of organic tomatoes versus the same number of commercially grown tomatoes.

How does organic food help people and the environment?

You've no doubt heard the phrase "You are what you eat," and this truth also applies to the food you eat. To paraphrase, "It is what is in it." For example, commercial pesticides, while much safer to both humans and the environment than many 20th century products, still contain chemicals effective in killing the nasty critters that like fruits and vegetables as much as you do. As you can imagine, it's not often recommended that you ingest these compounds.

The same policy applies to livestock products. Many commercial producers of meat use antibiotics and other medications regularly to protect their animals and/or to build more bulk (which creates more meat per animal).

Growth hormones are often used to increase the size and "yield" of meat from their animals. Organic products come from naturally grown, medicated, and fed animals, who have not been subjected to artificial or synthetic substances.

The environment benefits from not being subjected to pesticide "runoff." As rain provides necessary irrigation for growing plants, it also washes off exterior pesticides, causing their residue to flow into the ground, nearby streams, and other fresh water reservoirs.

The same result occurs with artificial fertilizers, which, of course, are applied to both plants and the ground in which they grow. Using natural growing methods eliminates environmental damage caused by artificial additives.