Organic Foods Truth

The organic foods truth can be found on this web site, take a look at our articles and form your own opinion.

What is Organic Food? by Peter Singer and Jim Mason
Authors of The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter

Using the label "organic" to distinguish one tomato from another is a big stretch from the word's original meaning, for until the middle of the twentieth century it simply meant something living or derived from living matter.

In that sense, the idea of an "inorganic tomato" is a contradiction in terms, unless it is, say, a tomato-shaped glass ornament.

With very few exceptions -- salt is one -- all our food is "organic" no matter how it is produced.

The specific sense of "organic" we use when we speak of "organic food" today traces back to 1942, when J. I. Rodale launched a magazine called Organic Gardening.

Nowadays Rodale is hailed as a pioneer, but then he was often derided as a crank and a throwback to obsolete ways of farming.

He advocated maintaining soil fertility and stability by putting organic matter -- animal manure or compost -- back into the soil rather than relying on the "inorganic," or synthetic, fertilizers that were then widely seen as the modern way to go.

So in Rodale's usage, it was the fertilizers, and from them, the farming methods, rather than the food, that were organic, and the concern was primarily with the soil, not with issues like biodiversity or animal welfare.

But the meaning of "organic farming" soon parted company from Rodale's original narrow distinction between fertilizers.

Varying definitions spun out of control as different associations of "organic farmers" tried to set standards in accordance with their own values.

Some wanted to stick with a narrow definition in terms of what you could and could not put on the soil, the crops, or the animals. Others wanted to include an entire way of life, including healthy living, an equitable form of distribution, concern for wildlife, and so on.

Among organizations of organic farmers around the world, the broader view prevailed. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements settled on this definition:

Organic agriculture is an agricultural system that promotes environmentally, socially, and economically sound production of food, fiber, timber, etc.

In this system, soil fertility is seen as the key to successful production.

Working with the natural properties of plants, animals, and the landscape, organic farmers aim to optimize quality in all aspects of agriculture and the environment.

Article continued on our page conventional vs. organic foods

Further reading

Living An Organic Lifestyle

Organic Food Articles

Organic Foods Truth News

NYT > Organic Food
News about organic food, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Dutch Cooperative Blurs Food Prejudices
In a Europe where conservative attitudes to farming are entrenched and hostility to genetically modified crops is sometimes obsessive, Food Valley is different.
In a Time of Cutbacks, Organic Chocolate Maker Looks to Expand
Green & Black’s, the British organic chocolate maker, has expanded to North America, and is now aiming at Northern Europe, including Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany.
Short List - Gray Kunz
Next month, the Singapore-born, Swiss-raised chef who worked in New York for some 20 years, at Lespinasse, Spice Market and his own Café Gray will open Café Gray Deluxe in Hong Kong?s sleek new Upper House hotel (upperhouse.com). T asked Kunz for a few of his favorite finds around the world.
A Roadside Harvest
Freshly picked produce from the Farm can be found at a stand in front of the five-acre farm, as well as at a handful of local restaurants.
A Bit Late, but Bounteous
The Tenafly Farmers? Market opened in June and, despite early-season rains that delayed crops, is now well stocked with produce.

Newsfeed display by CaRP