Seen in our Smith's (Kroger) today Cans of Organic Water! Ok, so it really said Organic Seltzer Water. That's still ridiculous to me. Water with CO2 dissolved in it, CO2 cannot in any way shape or form be thought of as "organic", can it? And water? Where will this craze stop? Frank
I buy organic milk; it lasts longer. But I agree this marketing of organic products does seem to have gotten out of control. But if people buy this line of thinking it brings in a little more money per unit. Who kknows where it will stop. I buy bottled water. I buy Ozarka, supposedly a Texas water from springs. Ozark was getting their water from the Arkansas Okzarks but they either got caught, or they ran out of spring water,or the State of Arkansas cut them off and out, all the way to Houston. I don't know if it ios spring water or water from one of Texas' lakes down in that part of the world, but if they ever come out with an organic water, I'm dropping them.
I would assume organic water..means it has not been treated..like our normal water out of the faucet ?
@Gloria Mitchell I think no exact definition has been rendered to explain "organic" food. Some of the terminology is definitely vague. "Cage-free" chickens comes to mind. Our neighbor in Missouri had chickens running all over the place. He built his house atop a hill. His sewage was piped down the hill and collected in a hole he dug at the bottom, open to the air. His chickens' only source of water was that sewer hole. He sold the chickens in town as "organically-raised, cage-free! We were sickened by him; some may have been so from his chickens which they bought. Frank
Organic ....use to mean pesticide free...I have no idea what it means in todays world. I don't buy organic anyway...unless you grow your own food....you don't know if its grown organically or not. Another money maker for some I think.
Even if they don't put chemicals and pesticides on the stuff they are calling organic...it is still grown in soil that has chemicals and pesticides in it...unless someone found virgin soil somewhere to grow this organic stuff in. Of course I do think that not putting chemicals and pesticides on vegetables, etc. is still better for you than adding that...but then to sell them in the supermarkets which don't get them the day they are harvested, etc. ....it seems something has to be used on them for shelf life. That would render them "not" organic anymore to me.
Unless they have been changed recently, the results mandate that a field be planted organically for a minimum of seven years before the produce can be marketed as organic. I think there are also stipulations about the distance that must be in place between that field and any other field using pesticides, but I am not sure about that part. I know there was a lawsuit here in Maine by a farmer who could no longer market his produce as organic because a neighboring farmer used pesticides. Like most such stories, the media never followed up on it so I don't know how it came out. I also believe, but am not sure, that organic and GMO-free are separate issues, so genetically modified crops can be marketed as organic. So yes, it won't be virgin soil but we can expect it to be considerably cleaner. If I lived in a farming area, I'd put more weight on the words of a farmer who assured me that his produce was organically grown than on any label, however.
I depends on the certifying agency, but in general GMO foods cannot be marketed as organic, although Monsanto has been lobbying for years to make it so they can. The seven years is also correct, but small-time growers (less than $10,000 in income from crops) can get away with marketing crops as organic that are not. In other words, if you buy it in the U.S. in a supermarket and it is labeled as "organic", it probably is not GMO and is raised to organic standards of the agency they use to certify. If you buy it at a road stand or even a farmer's market, it may not be. "Natural", "free range" and "cage free" generally mean nothing unless the state it which it is sold has regulations. We have a farmer is this area who has been growing organically for more than 20 years, but no longer markets his food as "organic" because the certifying fee here is over $2000, and he doesn't want to pay the money. Everyone who knows him and his wife KNOW that they are getting organically-grown food, and he only markets through his CSA, so it doesn't really matter to his bottom line.
That's good to know. I see some foods marketed as both organic and GMO-free, while others are marketed as simply organic, but you are right. -- USDA
Given that the USDA has a yearly budget of more than $150 billion, wouldn't you think that some of that could be used to offset the costs of the certifying agencies, at least to something that more realistically represented the actual costs involved? Given that these costs are passed on to the consumer, if healthy foods had anything to do with the mission of the USDA, I'd think that consumers shouldn't have to pay exorbitant costs in order to avoid eating pesticides and genetically modified foods.
I I think they want to make eating "pure" food more expensive to placate their political donors and lobbyist friends. They also want to limit somewhat the number of people who can grow and market such.