Marion Nestle Answers Questions on Organic on SFGate.com

On Sunday, author, educator and nutrition expert Marion Nestle answered some questions surrounding “organic”. This is quite the loaded term these days, and can mean different things depending on who’s using it. For a big corporation, organic may mean no pesticides, but the crops could still be raised as a monoculture. Some smaller farms are now using the term “beyond organic” to classify their crops in an attempt to differentiate themselves from mainstream “organic”. Nestle also talks about the idea of organic as elite, the word “organic” vs. “health”, and higher costs.

Certified Organic May Not Be 100% Organic

In the year since I have been writing this column, readers have sent in many questions about organic foods. With the White House and the U.S. Department of Agriculture planting organic gardens, these questions have become more urgent.

Q: What is the difference between “100% organic” and “organic”?

A: Organic has a precise meaning under the USDA’s organic program. Certified 100% Organic means that all the ingredients in a product have been grown or raised according to the USDA’s organic standards, which are the rules for producing foods labeled organic. Certified Organic requires that 95 to 99 percent of the ingredients follow the rules.

What, exactly, are those rules? Summarizing what’s in hundreds of pages in the Federal Register:

– Plants cannot be grown with synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, genetic modification, irradiation or sewage sludge.

– Animals must be raised exclusively on organic feed, have access to the outdoors, and cannot be given antimicrobial drugs or hormones.

– Producers will be inspected to make sure these practices are being followed to the letter.

Q: How do we know “organic” truly reflects our beliefs?

A: I am guessing this question refers to the spirit of organics. In the 1920s, the British botanist Albert Howard learned from observing farmers in India that human health depends on growing foods sustainably. Indian farmers taught him the importance of protecting soil nutrients through composted manure, crop rotation and appropriate cultivation, and using biological pest controls. Later, these methods were called “organic.”

But USDA organic rules do not say a word about sustainability. This gap occurred as a result of the history of the organic standards (as I recount in “What to Eat”), but also as a result of the USDA’s inherent conflicts of interest. The USDA’s main job is to promote industrial agriculture. Organics, the USDA says, are just different, not better. Alas, the USDA has not always been a loving home for the organic program.

Read the rest of the article here.