Organic Junk Food

[Fat Guy]

I think it's helpful to work with examples. How about ice cream? Chocolate cake? Banana cream pie? Blueberry muffins? Corn bread? Certainly these are all sugary foods, high in fat. They may have some nutritional value, but it's incidental. Yet I don't think I have any negative gut reaction to organic ice cream.

The things that I react negatively to on a gut level are things like "Glenny's Onion & Garlic Soy Crisps," "Lundberg Organic Sesame Tamari Rice Cakes," "Clif Nectar Organic Cinnamon Pecan Fruit-Nut Bars," etc. And it's not that I find any one of those items, standing alone, to be offensive. It's that when you go to so-called whole/natural/organic food shops or market sections today, you see stuff like this stretching as far as the eye can see, just like the Fritos/Cheetos/Doritos aisle in a regular supermarket.

[johnnyd]

Still, the trend away from whole foods and towards foods that are exactly the same as the crap in a regular supermarket, but with organic ingredients lists, is clearly happening. It almost seems as though the organic designation has been sufficiently coopted that there needs to be another term to describe foods that are actually healthful and wholesome.

Not helping the situation further, is this news...

USDA approves all 38 nonorganic ingredients

Products using hops, sausage casings* now legal for use in organic production

by Sustainable Food News (quoted here by permission)

June 22, 2007

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Friday approved a proposed rule allowing manufacturers continued use of 38 nonorganic ingredients including hops and sausage casings, which were effectively outlawed for use in products bearing the federal organic seal June 9 by court order.

The agency will publish in the Federal Register an Interim Final Rule effectively legalizing the 38 nonorganic ingredients for use in organic production, and adding them to Section 205.606 of the National List of Approved Substances.

The 38 petitioned materials recommended by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), which advises the agriculture secretary on standards, were published in a proposed rule in May signaling its intent to add the materials to the List.

The NOP regulation (7 CFR Part 205) changed June 9 after a court order stemming from what is known as the “Harvey lawsuit” came into effect. The amended regulation banned the use of minor nonorganic ingredients in products bearing the USDA organic seal unless they have been determined by a certifier as not being commercially available in organic form or have passed a review by federal regulators.

USDA spokesperson Joan Shaffer told Sustainable Food News that the agency allowed all products produced and labeled as of midnight June 8 to be “considered in the stream of commerce” and allowed to be sold as organic until supplies are exhausted.

[* 1- Casings of processed cows and pigs to be allowed in "organic" meats

2- Hops grown with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers for "organic" beer, and

3- Fish oil unpurified of heavy metals, dioxin and PCBs to be added to "organic" baked goods, cereals, cheese and soups to elevate the omega-3 fatty acid content of foods]

Organic Consumers.org - related article 5/21/07

usda.org - Proposed changes to Nat'l List of Approved Substances

[MarketStEl]

Still, the trend away from whole foods and towards foods that are exactly the same as the crap in a regular supermarket, but with organic ingredients lists, is clearly happening. It almost seems as though the organic designation has been sufficiently coopted that there needs to be another term to describe foods that are actually healthful and wholesome.

Not helping the situation further, is this news...

USDA approves all 38 nonorganic ingredients

Products using hops, sausage casings* now legal for use in organic production

by Sustainable Food News (quoted here by permission)

June 22, 2007

[snip]

Organic Consumers.org - related article 5/21/07

usda.org - Proposed changes to Nat'l List of Approved Substances

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Okay, Steven, I understand the point you made upthread. An "organic" standard that allows ingredients that were in some way contaminated by nonorganic substances is hardly "organic" at all.

But what's the problem with the sausage casings?

[butterscotch]

  But doesn't this emphasis on junk food cut against the whole organic philosophy, to the extent there is one anymore? Isn't the idea for foods to be natural and good for you?

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I always thought the biggest part of organic philosophy was that it was better for the earth. And a good thing for everyone, mostly as an extension of that. You know, less pesticides everywhere.

If people are going to by processed foods, I'm happier if the way they are made doesn't include lots more nitrogen running off into our rivers and the gulf. It would be nice if we wre less chemically dependent in our methods of food production.

Also, what pases for food can be downright scary. I was reading how the biggest maker of "cheese food" was using a sustance similar to melamine to make their "food" but it wasn't on the USDA's list of "food" at all and they were continuing to use it because the FDA did nothing more than send them a letter. Ironic that their cheese food was neither cheese nor food! So I can see favoring organic for my cheese products, at least with shady things like that going on.

On the other hand, if they came out with organic Munchos, I would buy them (by the case) but if they were tasty-- I wouldn't kid myself that I was eating healthy.