How do you know how organic a food product really is?

It looks like you have to do a lot of research, according to Wikipedia. The best thing to do is to know the farmer you are purchasing food from and be able to verify their practices yourself. The farms are certified organic by third parties and the rules describing what is organic are made at the federal level in the US.

It looks like a pretty onerous process, which kind of defeats the purpose. It was supposed to support small farms, growing organic food by hand, the way it should be. Unfortunately, big agriculture got into it, and now there are significant certification processes that may push the true organic farms right out of being able to say they are organic.

What can you do? People want to be sure that when a farmer says it’s organic that it really is. And they want to know what level of organic it is.

You don’t and @wundayatta has all the salient points about this mysterious industry. I do believe there is legislation being worked on to address this very subject.

If you pull it fresh straight out of the ground…..I think it’d be organic.

@xjustxxclaudiax – not if you poured a bunch of toxins into the ground to protect the produce from being attacked from bugs and junk.

Much of the non-organic produce comes right out of the ground too.

Actually, the “Organic” label is pretty strongly regulated, at least in the US (and I think also in the EU).

Though you wouldn’t know it from looking at the USDA’s website. Because their website is absolute shit.

Anyway, in order for a food to be legally labeled “organic,” it has to meet certain requirements:
• No synthetic fertilizers or pesticides
• Livestock must be fed mostly organic feed
• No antibiotics or artificial growth hormones
• Minimal living standard requirements (but better than not organic).

Note that there are labels that are not regulated by the government and therefore could mean anything. “Cage free,” “Natural” and “Free Range” are examples. The “Organic” label actually means something (see above); these labels don’t mean anything, because they’re unregulated.

So, it is definitely better for the environment and for animal welfare to buy organic than from non-organic supermarket suppliers, and you should always buy organic over other nice-sounding labels. However, organic farms are often industrialized monocultures. They usually aren’t the hippie ideal of small mixed farms, and they can still get away with treating animals poorly (though not as much as non-organic). So the best bet is to buy directly from a local farmer that you trust. But since this isn’t always an option, buying organic is still better than buying conventional.

I think most of the good points have been made, however one thing i will add is that many companies will use the word organic or change the word to ‘organica’ or something similar, for use in their actual branding. This is a legal form of deception and when one reads the label further, they realize that only a small portion of ingredient if any, may be organic and there is no certification at all.

@Arbornaut, I hadn’t heard of that. But you can look for the official “USDA Organic” label on real organic products.

@Qingu Yeah im familiar with those from imports, here in Australia and NZ we have our own regulating bodies which are fairly good.

Ah, Australian. I know little of the ways of your country, except to avoid the deadly box jellyfish.

Snakes, spiders, jellyfish and crocodiles.. yes.. its a fantastic place.

yep, you only know it, if you grow it….:):)

My eggs say cage free, vegetarian fed chickens….
vegetarian fed?? Do they feed the chickens hippies?? :):)

@jazmina88 Yes i believe vegetarian implies a diet of ground hippie meal, although Im not sure where they source it.

“Vegetarian fed”, were it actually true, would constitute cruelty in my book. Chickens love to peck around and eat bugs.

Hi…. The production of organic foods:
* Toxic pesticides aren’t utilized
* Soil fertility is maintained as well as replenished utilizing organic approaches like crop rotation, fertilizer crops, composting and so forth.
* Standard soil as well as nutrition analysis are completed to test soil fertility as well as food good quality
* Organic approaches of topsoil management are employed to make sure minimal soil erosion
* Organic farmers aim to preserve as well as defend organic wildlife, vegetation as well as water systems
* Organic farmers are concerned regarding the loss of many different species
* No genetically modified seeds are utilised
* Organic growers gather seeds from the plants as a way to preserve biodiversity
You are going to notice whenever you go food shopping which a lot of organic food has a label on it which says it really is a “certified organic item.” Each and every state has an agency which monitors as well as certifies organic food growers as well as producers.http://bit.ly/fnduAL