Deciphering "organic" labels

The Press Democrat had an interesting article yesterday about how to decipher labels such as "organic", "free-range" and "free-roaming" , "all natural" etc. The article gave a crash course in understanding organic food labels from Consumer Reports.

I think as the organic food/product business has been growing and as more interest in it has developed, there have been some companies that are trying to cash in on consumers paying higher prices for their food with these labels by being deceptive in their marketing practices.

Grow Organics Proposal

Over the summer, the House passed a version of the Farm Bill that's almost identical to the current unfair Farm Bill -- the one that's been paying subsidies to millionaires instead of investing to help organic agriculture grow. Now its up to the Senate to give organic farming support and affirmation. It is important for us to call our Senators and ask them to support the Grow Organics Proposal.

If you do have the chance to call, write or email your Senator to support the Grow Organics Proposal, which will invest an additional $1 billion in organics over the next 5 years, here are a few points you can make about the Grow Organics Proposal. The Proposal will support local farmers markets and community supported agriculture, assist farmers converting to organic, increase research on organic, chemical-free pest control, boost conservation aid to help organic farmers take good care of our land and environment and put more healthy, U.S.-grown organic food on families tables.

Why Organic?

Kids ask good questions. When our God Son was here a couple weeks ago he noticed all the organic food. It was cute, I'd bring something out, and he'd go, "and let me guess, Jenny, it's O-R-G-A-N-I-C right?!" He finally asked, why all the organic food? Well it forced me to try to come up with a good reason.

Here's what I told him:

I belive in organic for 3 reasons...

1. Better for the family- I like reducing the amount of chemicals we are eating.
2. Better for the farm workers- Farm workers, especailly in other countries, become very sick and from ongoing exposure to pesticides.
3. Better for the environment- when pesticides are used they find their way into waterways and can harm wildlife as well.

Local or Organic?

Well here's another perspective on the question on wither to buy local or organic. This jist was organic is better if forced to choose between the two. A different perspective, interesting article...

www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/2007/07/conservation-tip-prioritize-organic-over-local-for-a-capres.html

Resource I found

I am working away here, and I found a website in the UK that lists some
interesting 'vegan, organic' products...

http://www.uniquelywoman.co.uk/cgi-bin/hidata/hidata.pl

Haven't had time to really dig into it, but thought I'd pass it on.

A

Trader Joe's

We did it! Our first trip to TJ's. We bought 25 items for a total of $58. That's not bad really. Little over $2 per item. We went to the one in the Costco center. I felt weird and not in my zone. I was a bit shocked that they didn't have more produce. My receipt says 4 of the items are organic. Have you tried their pizza dough? We bought the whole wheat one. I'm thinking to save gas, we will just stick to Oliver's Market, but if we are in Santa Rosa and need some food, we will stop by TJ's. I still want to check out Whole Foods though.
Oh! we also got soy ice cream too. Mainly for me and Victoria. Dan doesn't like soy. The taste brought back memories of when I had soy ice cream as a kid. I was on soy as a kid cause I was allergic to milk. Not so much now. Can't wait to try the dessert Dan picked out that is from France, chocolate mousse cake. Yum!

Organic Cotton or Used

So I keep running my 1-a-day's past Calvin, thinking he might say something is a little too extreme... but so far I can't stump him, he's on board 100%! I'll keep trying. We're not going to buy clothes unless they are made of organic cotton, some other fiber that does not use pesticides, or it's used. Here's why...

I learned today (at the Green Expo) that cotton is one of the worlds most highly sprayed crops, making up 25% of insecticide use.

That got me thinking. Aside from the fact that I'd rather not have my family ingesting chemicals or possibly genetically modified food (if it's USDA approved it can't be genetically modified- I'll do a post on GMO when I have time), there are two other reasons I choose organic.

1) A big reason I buy organic food is for the environmental impact. The worst environmental impact I am aware of is chemicals finding their into our waterways.

2) The other reason I buy organic is the impact on the people who grow it. I think about the farm workers and the family owned farms. Both are affected by the large scale use of pesticides. I read today that farm workers at conventional farms are 6 times more likely to develop cancer than the average person. Check out www.nfwm.org for more info on exploited farm workers if you're interested. It's also my understanding that in many cases family farms do better when they go organic because they can sell their produce for more, allowing them to stay in business.

So I'm ready to branch out and buy not just organic food but other organic products as well.

There are a lot of great organic clothing web sites and retail stores out there. If I could I'd go on a shopping spree and support those companies and designers who are starting to change the industry. But money is a factor. I like shopping used. I think it's fun. So I'll find whatever I can used and then fill in the rest with new stuff. I'm looking forward to shopping. Honestly the best time I have clothes shopping is when I shop at Salvation Army. I feel like it's truly guilt-free shopping. The stuff is cheep, the money is going to a good cause, and I'm recycling. I realized that today Calvin, Brian, and I were all wearing stuff I got at Salvation Army. And it will be fun to find places to get new sustainable clothing.

My Organic Black Beans

So we made Tacos for dinner tonight... again. I love tacos and recently at Trader Joes I picked up some newer, organic ingredients to swap with the ones I always used to buy. So all is good and we are cooking and I am reading the article from Time magazine, called "Eating better than Organic", in between chopping and stirring. Its about eating local over eating organic. Jennifer posted the link back in the early days of this blog... yes March. Here it is again:

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101070312,00.html

So I went from being all proud that I am having Organic black beans to all disappointed that they were a " a product of China". How much fuel did it take to get these beans to Trader Joes and is that any better for the environment then eating just regular old, non-organic black beans from California?!?! In the article its referred to as as "environmental wash" meaning they both make a negative environmental impact, so the author, or the guy hes interviewing, says at that point just go with what tastes better, and of course price becomes part of it ( for me at least).

What are your thoughts on all of this? We live in California which is supposed to be one of the few areas that can grow just about anything, meaning we have access to a lot more locally grown foods then say New York. Do any of you buy local over organic? Of course both would be great...

I really want to look into buying more locally, there are just a lot of benefits for our environment and health and community that I was oblivious to (Im growing up I guess). I swear up until a few weeks ago an apple was just a flippin' apple! Now I want it to be organic and local and I want to walk to go get it! Not with everything obviously (do they even grow bananas here?).

Anyway, please share your thoughts on local vs. organic. I could never see myself adhering to the "100 mile diet", but I will definitely get my family to a farmers market a couple times a month...