{"id":46447,"date":"2015-10-06T18:14:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T01:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/?p=46447"},"modified":"2022-11-11T00:55:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T07:55:52","slug":"what-does-organic-really-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/blog\/what-does-organic-really-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does Organic Really Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Did you know that in the United States, the word&nbsp;<strong><em>organic<\/em><\/strong> has a legal definition? This is good news because so many other words that you find on food labels (I&#8217;m looking at you,&nbsp;<em>&#8220;all-natural&#8221;!!)&nbsp;<\/em>isn&#8217;t regulated by the FDA, which means they are primarily used for purposes of sales and marketing, as opposed to that of informing the consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The word <strong><em>organic<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strong>is different. And when you buy&nbsp;<strong><em>organic<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strong>in the United States (or buy products with the USDA Organic Label), you can actually learn something about the food, depending, of course, on what kind of food it is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fruits, Veggies, and Other Produce&nbsp;certified <em>organic<\/em> means:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Grown in soil that hasn&#8217;t used chemical fertilizers or pesticides for 3 years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not produced with Genetically Modified seeds (GMO&#8217;s \u2014&nbsp;the&nbsp;<em>O<\/em> stands for&nbsp;<em>organisms)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meat certified <em>organic<\/em> means:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Animals are raised in living conditions accommodating their natural behaviors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fed 100% organic feed and forage<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not administered antibiotics or hormones.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not produced with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO&#8217;s)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For processed, multi-ingredient foods, <em>organic&nbsp;<\/em>means:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>No artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All ingredients organic (with some minor exceptions like enzymes in yogurt, for example)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not produced with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO&#8217;s)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Foods that say &#8220;made with <em>organic<\/em>&nbsp;[whatever]&#8221;&nbsp;:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>70% of the ingredient is organic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">So&#8230; Should I Buy Organic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer, in 99%* of cases is&nbsp;<em>&#8220;yes&#8221;.&nbsp;<\/em>Protecting you and your family from the chemicals in fertilizers and the genetic manipulations of&nbsp;GMO&#8217;s is an important part of healthy living and cancer prevention. Unfortunately,&nbsp;buying organic is a bit more expensive in the short term, but when you weigh those costs against the rising cost of medical care, investing in your health will always be cheaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final caveat we&#8217;ll say about all of this is that getting certified&nbsp;<em>organic<\/em> is expensive, which means that while your local farm might be growing all its food organically, it might not be able to&nbsp;<em>say<\/em> that it&#8217;s&nbsp;<em>organic<\/em> because it hasn&#8217;t paid to go through the whole process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When shopping at a farmer&#8217;s market, feel free to ask the vendors how their products are grown and\/or produced. If they tell you they are &#8220;grown organically&#8221;, this is a good sign that they are probably &#8220;organic&#8221;, even if their operation hasn&#8217;t been officially certified.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/USDA_organic_seal.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/USDA_organic_seal-300x300.gif\" alt=\"USDA Organic Seal\" class=\"wp-image-46458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/USDA_organic_seal-300x300.gif 300w, https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/USDA_organic_seal-150x150.gif 150w, https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/USDA_organic_seal-1024x1024.gif 1024w, https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/USDA_organic_seal-160x160.gif 160w, https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/USDA_organic_seal-320x320.gif 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Update: A recent post from Healthy Holistic Living, mentioned several ways that organic foods fall short:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>You\u2019re going to be shocked to learn that <b>there is no limit to how much mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and aluminum is allowed in \u201corganic\u201d products<\/b>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a fact: USDA organic standards place NO LIMITS on levels of heavy metals contamination of certified organic foods. Even further, there is no limit on the contamination of PCBs, BPA and other synthetic chemicals that\u2019s allowed in certified organic foods, superfoods and supplements.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words,&nbsp;<em>organic<\/em> tells us something about how food is grown \u2014 but fails to tell us anything about the environmental conditions that crops may be exposed to.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that in the United States, the word organic has a legal definition?  This article will tell you exactly what it does and doesn&#8217;t mean. You&#8217;ll be surprised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":46457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1883],"tags":[1904,1907,2046,2132,2858,8393],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Does Organic Really Mean?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know that in the United States, the word organic has a legal definition?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/blog\/what-does-organic-really-mean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does Organic Really Mean?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know that in the United States, the word organic has a legal definition?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dherbs.com\/blog\/what-does-organic-really-mean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies &amp; 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