Organic - What does it mean?

The other morning on the radio there was some discussion, one might even say controversy, about what it means to eat organic. Does it mean the food is not genetically modified, or does it mean no pesticides? The DJs were puzzled that no one was calling in to help clarify the topic. Clearly the word organic needs some clarification.

While current agriculture practices can be a complicated subject, the short answer is organic means growing food using the same traditional methods that have been used for thousands of years. Modern chemical/industrial large-scale growing methods are a recent phenomenon, only a few decades old, and more expensive and complex than doing things the natural way.

In his book “The End of Food” Thomas Pawlick paints a bleak picture of big agriculture:
“The corporate, factory-farm food system that dominates so much of North American agriculture today is destructive of nearly everything it touches. It degrades the nutritional quality and taste of the food we eat, filling it with toxins and poisons, destroys family farmers and rural communities, blights the land and the environment, and tortures the living creatures it “manufactures” in its dark, satanic barns. Its future products may prove to be genetic or micro-mechanical horrors, inflicting new plagues upon an unprepared world... The only entities who seem to truly benefit from this system are a tiny group of already-wildly-rich corporations and their executives, and those, including our politicians, who have been coopted by them.”

Of course, genetically modified crops and livestock have been created for the purpose of making big agri-corporations richer. It takes time and money to rotate crops annually. Genetically modified crops increase the need for chemical pesticides and herbicides. Big corporations maximize production of a given highly profitable crop, year after year in the same fields, using chemicals as the panacea for any pest outbreaks that resulted. As insects and weeds develop resistance to these chemicals, still more lethal compounds have been introduced, until the compounds threatened to endanger the survival of the crops themselves. Gene manipulators then created crops that would not be affected by the toxic compounds, or which themselves were toxic to the pests in question. These crops’ seeds and pollen cross-pollinated with other varieties in neighbouring fields creating superweeds that could not be eradicated.

In an ideal world, we could defeat corporate power over the food industry by setting up our own, alternative systems. If you can start your own garden, fantastic. Be sure to buy heritage seeds. However, since that is not practical for many people – to grow their own fruits and vegetables and raise their own livestock – the next best thing is to buy organic and buy locally.

Organically grown whole foods are produced without damage to the naturally occurring enzymes, chlorophyll, phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fats, sugars, amino acids and life vitality, which makes them much more nutritious in their natural state.  Yes, organic produce has higher nutritional content than non-organic produce. What is good for the external environment, is also good for our internal environment.

If you cannot go completely organic for reasons of economics or availability, the following list shows which foods are the most important ones to buy from organic sources:

·         Apples

·         Strawberries

·         Peaches

·         Blueberries

·         Bananas (heavily sprayed w. pesticides and the skin absorbs the chemicals)

·         Dairy

·         Nectarines

·         Grapes

·         Cucumbers

·         Bell peppers

·         Spinach and kale

·         Lettuce

·         Potatoes

·         Celery

·         Meat

The answer to the DJs question is yes, both! Organic means food that is not genetically modified and is pesticide free. It means farming the way it was done as recently as my grandparents’ generation. But now that takes a special effort and unfortunately at more cost to the consumer. But, if you value your health, I think you'll agree, it is worth buying organic when you can.