SPEAKER: All right. I am here with you this evening to talk about responsible shopping for organic foods. If you’re here tonight, it’s because you are already aware enough about food to realize that buying organic is not only better for your health, but also better for the environment and society at large. The problem is, however, that the label ‘organic’ can mean a range of practices and conditions, and corporations are monopolising on that ambiguity.
MAN: So, they are selling us food that isn’t organic?
SPEAKER: No, not exactly. What many companies do is meet the minimum requirements for organic, which may or may not be in line with the consumer’s expectations of the quality of the food. What I’ll go over with you now is what the standards are for organic food, and what the different subcategories of organic mean.
To start, you should know that organic standards are not universal. They vary from country to country, or region to region. In places like the United States of America, they can even differ from state to state. Here in the UK, organic standards are applied to both animals and plants produced for human consumption. Animals that are raised organically must have access to the outdoors, at least in good weather, and must be held below a certain level of stocking density.
MAN: Excuse me…
SPEAKER: Yes?
MAN: What about antibiotics?
SPEAKER: Good question. They are allowed to use antibiotics in cases where they are absolutely necessary. Otherwise, no. They cannot routinely inject animals with antibiotics, or steroids, for that matter, without an urgent medical reason.
Now to plants. Organic farmers use minimal pesticides and other chemicals. There is a limited selection of pesticides approved for use in organic farming, but, uh, but even using those requires having no other alternatives. And as for herbicides, they are not permitted. Instead, organic farmers rely on crop rotation, hand or mechanical weeding, and well-timed cultivation.
A common question asked is whether organic food can contain genetically modified elements. The short answer is no. According to the most recent regulations, foods labeled organic can only include up to .9 percent genetically modified elements. So, basically none at all.
Those are just some of the general guidelines, and to be honest, there are ways to cheat the system, so to speak. I’ll give you an example… Some farmers who raise chickens, and want them to be labeled organic, will build chicken coops with the bare minimum amount of space to qualify for the stocking density requirements. And when inspectors aren’t there, it’s common for them to overrun their coops.
MAN: Now I’m really confused. I thought all organic meat came from animals that are free range?
SPEAKER: Thank you. That helps me segue way into the next part of my talk. There are a number of specific terms related to organic labeling that food producers can qualify for. And some of them will tell you more than the organic label. Free range is a good example. The free-range label standards depend on the type of animal. For a chicken, it means that the bird is allowed access to an outdoor range for at least 8 hours each day. For pigs, they have to live in an outdoor range with a hut for shelter.
MAN: Uh, I’ve seen animals out on ranges being treated quite poorly though. Well, in documentaries anyway. So just because they’re free range doesn’t mean they are treated properly.
SPEAKER: True. That’s why there’s another classification called ‘cruelty free.’ Um, I’ll have to use another example here to illustrate what this means. Let’s go back to the chicken example. Well, actually, let’s say hens. Hens lay eggs, right?
MAN: Right.
SPEAKER: Most farmers will cut off the front half of their beaks and clip their wings to make sure they don’t, um, peck others, or fly off. Even organic hen farmers do this. It saves them a lot of hassle. So for a hen’s eggs to be designated cruelty free, the farmers can neither cut their beaks nor clip their wings. But cruelty free animals also have to adhere to organic and free-range standards…so it’s an additional level of humane farming.