Organic food

[Cookwithlove]

You are what you eat is the common motto. My little knowledge of organic foods are they must be organically or naturally grown with:

* No artificial coloring

* No preservative

* No pesticides

* No chemical

* No chemical fertilizers

* No genetic modification and no radiation treatment

Known is one thing but how to prepare and some creation is another thing altogether.

For this we have to ask those organic food lovers to share their input?

May all be healthy,

Alex

[paulraphael]

Organic certification is given to food that's been produced according to a specific set of rules.

It's untrue that organic food is never grown with pesticiedes or chemical fertilizers; the chemicals used must simply be approved ones. The exact list varies from country to country.

Any notion that there are "no chemicals" in organic food just reflects a misunderstanding of chemicals. All the food you eat is 100% chemicals. As are you. The real questions all concern which chemicals are allowed and which aren't.

[CDRFloppingham]

Three of my cousins grow conventional and organic produce. They said the organic stuff is a joke. They know when the inspector is coming and can clean up the operation to meet the regulations.

[OliverB]

sounds like your cousins are into fraud, not very nice....

If they charge more for their fake organic food they're really not doing anybody any good except their wallet. Which is why we have eggs from chicken concentration camps too. Kind of sad.

To me organic means that the producer hopefully grows his things according to regulations, what ever they might be locally. It's hopefully a bit more environmentally conscious than just throwing what ever grow chems at stuff to harvest the most (crappy) product.

Is organic better for me? Not really, what ever chems are used in industrial agri won't relaly show up in concentrations to be worried about, but they show up downstream and that's what I'm concerned about.

To each their own of course.

As for cooking with organic food, there's no difference in how you use these, except that you should probably wash your non-organic stuff a bit more thoroughly.

I can't afford to buy all organic and I sure hope that the organic food I buy is grown/bred by honest people and really is organic, if I lay out the extra cash. I try to buy free range, free roaming meat, just getting 1/7th of a nice Berkshire hog next month, and attending a butchery class where I'll get even more pork, poultry and lamb, all raised out on the range. The way nice people treat their livestock, the way I like it. Happy animals taste better :-)

[gfron1]

I've emphatically switched my emphasis to local because the politics behind organic is to nauseating. By that I mean a small farmer who truly grows organic, can't afford to get their logo. And I've watched too many of my distributors all of us sudden convert their products to organic - did they really switch or is it just a logo. Its just more than I'm willing to deal with. Grow your own, trade with others and yes, eat the happy animals.

[KarenDW]

I'm much more inclined to purchase from a [local] grower with whom I have a relationship, than from an anonymous certified organic factory farm. Unfortunately, not all our local growers have the same sense of stewardship towards the earth. Also, a lot of decisions are based on $$, as my major work is in a non-for-profit agency with a limited budget. I think that we do a lot of responsible purchasing for our $3 per person per meal food restriction.

But the reality is, organic food costs more. Local food costs more. Not everyone has the option of choosing those "concepts" over just eating.

[OliverB]

I can't afford to go all local organic either, I try to go to the farmers market every week though. Not cheap, but things you can't find in the store and super fresh. There are some that farm organic but can't afford the certificate (which really should not cost anything IMO). It's just fun to go and make up recipes as I put things in my bags :-)

But yes, while I really hate the meat mass production, I still buy mass produced meats, can't afford to spend $20+ per lb on all the things we eat. But I'm trying and I'm hoping to forge a local relationship with some growers and ranchers. I'm getting 1/7th of a pig soon, which will cost me around $6 per pound, now that I can live with :-)

[paulraphael]

I've bought lamb from a great farm that sells both conventional and organic lamb. I've asked the farmer his opinion on the difference; he says, "the price."

Basically, organic certification is expensive. He's only been able to get a portion of his land certified. The lamb that grazes there is labeled organic, and he passes the cost of the process on to the consumer.

But there's no actual difference between the plots of land or the way the animals are raised.

In other words, just as there are farms that sell poor quality food that's certified organic, there are others that sell top quality, fundamentally organic food that's not certified at all.

[annecros]

As for cooking with organic food, there's no difference in how you use these, except that you should probably wash your non-organic stuff a bit more thoroughly.

←

This is a popular misconception.

You should really, really, really wash your organic food thoroughly. Unless you want to eat cow crap. And if you don't wash it, you are going to eat crap from some creature.

I'm really proud of my down home and natural growing methods. As natural as possible, but I ain't afraid of putting the pests in their place. I don't mind Mother Nature taking her share, but she can't have mine.

Feeding a tomato horn worm (which actually grows up to be an awesome moth) to the chickens to tear to bits is a pleasure. But, you got to find the darn thing first.

By the way, the tomatoes don't seem to make a distinction between nutrition from crap, and nutrition from the lab. They thrive either way.