All About Organics
Organic Consumers Association Campaigns, Essays, Headlines, Action Alerts, Downloads and Videos on Organic Food.
Organic food is pure food. It's safer, more nutritious and free of chemical additives. Organic crops are grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and organic livestock are raised without antibiotics, growth hormones or other drugs. Organic food isn't genetically modified or irradiated.
With a little know-how, innovative, do-it-yourself “season stretchers” in your garden can help extend your veggie-growing potential well beyond the norm for your plant hardiness zone and facilitate a much earlier harvest. Whether they’re small enough for just one plant or for a whole row, mini greenhouses and cloche ideas can protect young plants while forcing faster growth.
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Recently, the Washington Post exposed a couple of major certified organic brands that don’t strictly adhere to organic standards. The Post and others also recently reported on what one lawmaker, who serves on a key U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) committee, called “uncertainty and dysfunction” at the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).
These reports are troubling on multiple levels, especially to consumers who rely on the USDA organic seal to help them avoid pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), synthetic ingredients and foods produced using methods that
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Increasing numbers of German farmers are relying on organic production, with 7.5 percent of all arable land now cultivated ecologically. The government has set its sights on an ambitious target of 20 percent.
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The latest legal fight over exactly what goes into General Mills Inc.'s Nature Valley granola bars is over, with a federal judge dismissing a class-action lawsuit against the company.
Food industry website Food Dive reports on the dismissal of the case, which centered around claims by Golden Valley-based General Mills (NYSE: GIS) that its granola bars were made with "100% natural whole grain oats."
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The UK’s Prince Charles has praised organics specialist Eosta on a groundbreaking report into the ‘true cost’ of producing organic compared with conventional products, which concluded that the former is significantly cheaper when all costs are taken into account. Including their impact on health, climate, water quality and soil erosion, organic apples were found to be €0.19 (£0.17) cheaper per kilo than their conventional counterparts.
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Next year, the FDA’s new produce safety rule will go into effect. This rule is part of the suite of new regulations that came about as a result of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that was signed into law in 2011.
The produce safety rule sets standards that farms must follow to minimize the risk of microbiological contamination that could occur in the course of growing, harvesting, packing, or holding fresh produce.
The problem is that the government does not seem to have a clue about how much this rule will cost small farms.
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Cows produce more milk, faster, when they’re fed grain in the barn, as opposed to grazing on grass on pasture. Industrialized organic dairies are capitalizing on this by skimping on grazing time, raising thousands of cows in veritable CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), yet still gaining the USDA organic label that suggests a superior product. Small, organic and grass fed farmers are paying the price, faced with a glut of organic milk that’s driving down wholesale prices and flooding the market with an inferior, deceitfully labeled organic product.
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As an organic consumer, you know from experience that eating organic is essential to keeping yourself and your family healthy. Organic isn’t perfect. But buying USDA Organic is the best way to avoid pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and synthetic ingredients.
But now, Congress and the Trump Administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are threatening to make changes to the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) and the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB)—changes that could weaken organic standards beyond recognition.
Congress needs to hear from
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As market season kicks into high gear, farm stands beckon shoppers with signs: Local! Organic! Natural! No Spray! Sustainable! Organic is defined by strict federal standards. But what do these other claims really mean, and which are worthy of support?
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In May, the USDA began an agency reform initiative to cut out unnecessary spending and streamline regulation. These appear to be a code phrases for dismantling many longstanding programs that big agriculture can do without, but that smallholders are too disorganized and powerless to fight for.
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