Anecdotal experience and commentary regarding "organic" and "natural" foods
- Subject: Anecdotal experience and commentary regarding "organic" and "natural" foods
- Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 16:03:08 EDT
- Yahoo! Message Number: 2742
- Onibasu Link: http://onibasu.com/archives/am/2742.html
In a message dated 6/30/00 11:36:41 AM, decelie_edward writes:
<< I tried organic fruits, bananas and apples, and found them tastier. A
friend told me that there is no definition of organic and therefore what we
think is organic may in fact is not. I read a milk carton and it stated no
growth hormones, not anti-biotics but didn't stae no pesticides but rather no
disallowed pesticides (not the exact wording but you get the idea). What
gives? >>
I believe organic is defined by law in at least some states (CA and OR being
two I know this is true of). I don't know if it is federally defined or not.
Natural is the word that has no proper definition. If anything is "natural,"
check if the market has a flier from the producer explaining what they
actually do. Some "natural" foods are actually just fine, others are not.
"organic" in the use I run across here means it has been "organic" for at
least 3 years and everything that goes INTO it is "organic." This is pretty
hard to do, so a lot of stuff is "natural" with control on the input - that
is with measurements to ensure adequately low residue on the feed for
critters, etc.
Brands that I think really do this well are: Coleman beef, Oregon Country
beef, Beeler pork, Rocky Junior chicken, Rosie chicken. To the best of my
understanding Harrison Natural beef is also OK. I don't pledge for these nor
do I mean to disparage any brands not mentioned as I am simply listing the
things I have run across in stores myself.
BTW, there is a rage to declare chickens "natural" because they don't use
hormones. The use of hormones in chickens is forbidden by law (for good
reason, they screwed up a lot of kids in Puerto Rico and elsewhere by not
being careful) so this is the kind of bogus Bull$#(+ use of the term you need
to watch for as these chickens have antibiotics dripping out of them. I
think Zacky Farms is playing this game locally in California - I hear it all
over the radio but they don't sell 2 kinds of chickens and their price hasn't
changed so I really doubt they have dropped the antibiotics from the feed -
they certainly don't say anything about antibiotics in their ads touting
"natural, hormone free chickens."
Fish caught at sea seem OK but ones raised in farms have tons of nasties
added - thus the source of "atlantic salmon" is important. I suspect
"atlantic salmon" means "fish farm raised."
Again, not an area I am an expert in but one I have personally paid a lot of
attention to as there were a couple of years where goofing made me pretty
miserable for a long time.
BTW, the honesty of the people behind the meat counter in the stores varies
dramatically. I had a lot of trouble with the butchers at Whole Foods
swearing on a stack of bibles their stuff was organic when it turned out to
be the same Farmer John or Zacky stuff that was in all the other markets -
and I got really sick on it. The butcher at a Hughes Market near me (now a
Ralph's) turned out to be quite knowledgeable about the industry and to know
exactly where I could get what organic even though he couldn't carry any of
it due to lack of customer demand.
Because of this and other problems I do not shop at Whole Foods. I take my
chances at Ralph's or go to Wild Oats.
BTW, Henry's just bought Wild Oats. Anyone have experience with that chain
they want to share?
This is an area well worth some investigative journalism, but the problem is
the people interested in it are too moralistic about everything having to be
purer than pure - most people don't need that but they DO need real
information on what is in the stuff in which stores and what isn't. For
example, I personally tolerated the hormones when I was sickest, but was
devastated by the antibiotics (I got allergic symptoms from whatever it is
they use).
What would be very useful is for everyone to share their experience and the
brand names (supplier names) of the organic and natural stuff in their local
area that turns out to actually be good.
Andy Cutler
Onibasu Link: http://onibasu.com/archives/am/2742.html