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Alexander Event and Catering

Presentation

The Bright Future for Organic Food

It’s been a long time coming, but this year more organic food will be produced than any year to date! It isn’t difficult to see why we are beginning to win this war. It all comes down to money — the almighty dollar. It’s simply becoming more profitable to farm and ranch using organic methods than it is to farm or ranch using conventional methods.

Farmers and ranchers can add and subtract. The fact is that those chemical fertilizers that they put on their crops cost money. (Fertilizer from compost piles is free, and so is the fertilizer from organically fed animal waste.) Those toxic pesticides cost money, too. (The good bugs that eat the bad bugs are free, too.) There’s a cheaper way, and that way is by using organic methods. Farmers and ranchers have discovered what we’ve been “preaching” for years — the land will stay more fertile, and it will produce more and better crops, if natural products are used.

Then there’s the little fact that those farmers and ranchers can get more money for organically produced food than they can for food that is produced using conventional methods. I told you they could add and subtract.

It is still difficult and costly for farms and ranches to be “certified” organic by the government. We don’t want the standards to be relaxed, but we are working toward making the process of being certified a little simpler and a little less costly.

Meanwhile, we can celebrate. There will be more organic food produced on more farms and ranches worldwide this year than there was last year. We believe that there will be more produced next year than this year.

The future for organic food is indeed bright and getting brighter all the time.

Where to Buy Organic Food

The first thing to note is that there are several different descriptive phrases and labels that are used on organic food. You need to understand what these phrases and labels mean so that you are actually purchasing what you think you are purchasing.

*  “Certified Organic”: A product with this label has been produced adhering to the organic standards mandated by the government of the United States.

*  “Organic”: A product with this label contains at least 95% organic materials.

*  “100% Organic” or “Certified Organic”: The term simply means that the fruit or vegetable was grown without the use of chemicals and under compliance with the U.S. rules. 

*  “Made with organic ingredients”: This means that 70% of the ingredients are organic.

*  “Contains organic ingredients”: This term means that the product contains less than 70% organic ingredients; how much less does not have to be specified.

Organic foods and other organic or “green” products are sold at health food stores and at herbal medicine shops. Major grocery chains now carry a line of “organic” food products and other “green” products. You can also find foods that are labeled “organic” at local farmer’s markets. There are many sites online to buy organic products as well.

If you are determined to go organic, you need to remember that you are going to pay more for organic products. They cost more, but they are considered safer for human consumption by advocates for organically produced food.

Another source for organic food is a membership in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Subscribers to CSA programs receive a weekly or monthly basket of locally grown, in-season fruits, vegetables, flowers, eggs, milk, and sometimes other products like coffee or tea.

Truly Yours,

A Alexander Event and Catering

Organic Food Stores

All stores that sell organic food and organically produced products are not created equal. There are a couple of things that you need to know before your first shopping trip to a store that advertised organic food and other “green” products.

First, the term “organic” does not mean exactly what you would think that it means. A product that is labeled “organic” may not mean that it is totally organic. Learn to recognize these terms:

*  “Certified Organic”: The “certified organic” label means that the product has been produced adhering to the organic standards mandated by the government of the United States.

*  “Organic”: The label “organic” means that the product contains at least 95% organic materials. Foods that are imported from abroad, for example, may be labeled “organic” if they meet the organic standards of their country of origin. But that doesn’t mean that those standards are as stringent as the standards of the United States. There is a big variation between organic standards from country to country.

*  “100% Organic”: This is a label that is sometimes put on single-ingredient products like apples or oranges. It simply means that the fruit or vegetable was grown without the use of chemicals.

*  “Made with organic ingredients”: This term means that 70% of the ingredients are organic. The claim can appear on the front of package but must name the specific ingredients.

*  “Contains organic ingredients”: This term means that the product contains less than 70% organic ingredients.

Labels can be deceiving. You have to understand the language and the labeling so that you know exactly what you are buying. There are fines and penalties for mislabeling products as organic when they are in fact not organic.

Making the Organic Food Argument

I really don’t understand why there would be any argument in the first place about organic food being better and better for the human body than conventionally produced food. Every indicator says that organic food is better. There isn’t even a very convincing argument that conventionally produced food is better for anybody other than the producers. At the moment, it’s true that organically produced food is more expensive than conventionally produced food, but when (if) organic methods are more widely used, the prices will likely be very nearly the same.

But in making the organic food argument, I can point to the following facts with the utmost confidence:

*  Organic fruits and vegetables have a higher content of the trace minerals needed by the human body.

*  Organic fruits and vegetables have a higher content of vitamins than conventionally grown produce.

*  Organic fruits and vegetables have a higher (MUCH higher) level of antioxidants than do conventionally grown plants.

*  The meat from meat-producing livestock that were raised using organic methods does not contain growth hormones or antibiotics.

*  Milk from milk cows that are fed only an organic diet does not contain growth hormones or antibiotics. The same is true for dairy products like cream and cheese.

*  Eggs that are laid by chickens that are fed only a diet of organic feed do not contain antibiotics or growth hormones, either.

The reason that producers use conventional production methods (pesticides, fertilizers, drugs) is because these conventional methods increase production and decrease cost. Basically, conventional methods are more beneficial to the producer’s bottom line than are organic methods that do not use pesticides, fertilizers, or drugs.

Organic food producers work in harmony with nature. They employ such tactics as fertilizing soil with such things as grass clippings or dried leaves rather than toxic chemicals. For insect control, they use “good” bugs to control “bad bugs” rather than toxic pesticides. Meat producing animals are fed a diet of only organic feed and no antibiotics, growth hormones, or other drugs are used.

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Alexander Event and Catering