"USDA Organic"- what you get when you buy Organic in the U.S.A.

In my recollection of when I first started to buy organic food (a little here and there, then built my way up), it was pretty expensive compared to it's conventional (meaning non-organic) counterparts. Supply and demand surely came into play and organic farmers were more small time, not backed by huge companies such as "Hain". Therefore, I paid, you paid, we all paid more for our organics a decade ago. Nothing pleases me more than when I find USDA organic foods as cheap, if not cheaper, than conventional foods.

What I have found over the years is that not all organic foods are created equal. Imagine that? I have talked to several who don't "believe" in organics (I always say it's my religion) and convincing them is like trying to convert a Catholic to a Mormon-or vice versa.

I grew up in the Mormon religion, I can poke fun at it.

When discussing organics with a non-organic consumer, it can get touchy, like religion or politics. Trying to sell my own children on why organic foods are better (when clearly McDonald's chicken nuggets are the best food on earth) was difficult. I had to figure out how to explain to them that organic is not a flavor.

Once, a dear friend of mine told me that she had "tried an organic apple once" and "didn't like it". Ok, well, I have had movie theater popcorn, at several different movie theaters, and many times I didn't like the popcorn because it was either stale tasting, too salty, or whatever. But, I almost always buy popcorn still when we go to see a movie and I do enjoy it more than not (if only it were organic!). I surely cannot be the only person who has ever had to return a food item for not being up to par, whether it be organic or not.  It is quite possible that organic apple either was not picked at its peak, had been sitting on the shelf too long, or just wasn't the type of apple that pleased the taste buds at that time. The same can  happen with a conventional apple.

One should not base their entire view about organics on one experience, with one "bad" apple.

Organic foods, simply put, means it contains no GMO's, pesticides, fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, antibiotics, injected hormones, or "bad" chemicals.


Here are the USDA guidelines for what makes an organic food item organic, and how it will appear on a label:

• 100% Organic – Foods that are completely organic or made with 100% organic ingredients. May display the USDA seal.
• Organic – Foods that contain at least 95% organic ingredients. May display the USDA seal.
• Made with organic ingredients – Foods that contain at least 70% organic ingredients. Will not display the USDA seal. May list specific organic ingredients on the front of the package.
• Contains organic ingredients – Foods that contain less than 70% organic ingredients. Will not display the USDA seal. May list specific organic ingredients on the information panel of the package.

 Some question, "How do you know if your food is truly organic, especially when it comes from another country?"

Well, how do I know that the cook who made my meal at the restaurant I ate at the other night didn't sweat in my food? I don't.

I am confident my food was handled properly before it arrived on my plate?

How do we know anything for sure, unless we do it ourselves?

Until I grow my own, all I can do is trust that the agencies put in place, to monitor, audit, and impose fines (if necessary) are enough to ensure that my food is truly organic. Just like in religion, I have to have faith. For the most part,  I know that most organic farmers do it because they truly believe in what it stands for. Not many who believe in organics will cut corners risking their own jobs, livelihood, and organic's values. I can almost guarantee that the conventional farming practices will always be wrought with more pesticides and garbage at any rate.


MAJOR benefits to supporting organic agriculture:

1. Saving our environment:

Recently, I was watching one of those "Hoarding" t.v. shows, where bazillions of roaches, trash, feces, and the like were overtaking this woman's home by fault of her own diseased mind. So, they clean up her home, take it all out, make it nice. But, no matter where that garbage went, it is still on this earth. It is not gone forever. No matter how one cleans up a space on this planet, whether it be cleaning of the beaches, a back yard, a junk yard, the "stuff" is still here. It's not truly cleaned up, it's just moved on to another place on this earth. What does conventional farming do with the run-off of chemicals, the residuals, the contaminated soil? Organic farming, ranching, and dairy, has an amazing positive affect on our environment by sustaining all that it encompasses. By using safe measures for pesticide control, alternating of the soil, no chemicals to linger for decades to come, its practices are helping to preserve our children's futures. The scary part to me is knowing that conventional farming is still allowed, knowing how harmful it is to the environment, and ultimately us.

2. Helping Antibiotics stay effective when sincerely needed medically for humans:

The overuse of antibiotics (because many doctors, and doctors' patients feel they are necessary when they are not helpful at all) is making us all immune to its affects. Antibiotics that are given to animals (who are not organically raised) are ingested into our bodies when we eat the meat and/or dairy of that animal. Antibiotics are becoming less effective for humans due to the over abundance of its use and infiltration of our food.

3. Live a longer, healthier life:

Pesticides can cause cancer and other diseases, plain and simple- not to mention all the other culprits that are put into most conventional food items. I am all for living as long as possible so why wouldn't I try to limit my intake of poisonous substances? Sure, Mr. Paul Newman, a huge advocate of organic, holistic foods, died of cancer (RIP blue eyes). But, other factors come into play besides food. Genetics, smoking, drinking, environment, medications, etc. Maybe things he had done earlier in life had finally caught up to him. Maybe, no matter what, he was genetically pre-disposed with an increased chance of disease. So, I would like to think that his organic lifestyle, whenever he began down that path, helped him live a longer life than he would have had, had he not eaten organically.

sus·tain·a·ble

photo credit: Cadee Coombs

sus·tain·a·ble/səˈstānəbəl/

Adjective:

Able to be maintained at a certain rate or level. (esp. of development, exploitation, or agriculture) Conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources. Why is knowing the definition of "Sustainable" important when it comes to our environment? Here someone's view of sustainability : by Tsalyer: "Environmental sustainability is important because our food and water comes from the environment. If we use too much of it we will run out. If we run out and there is no way to produce more we will eventually become extinct." That about sums it up. If one stops to think about it....we are using up items and resources faster than the earth can produce them. This is why recycling is so very important to us all. Why would someone throw away a perfectly good plastic bottle that could be recycled into another plastic item? If a recycling program is available in one's home town, there is no excuse not to recycle. It is as easy as taking out the trash, but it's less stinky and messy! Think of all the trash you make, all by yourself, in just one day. Now think of all the trash your family makes in just one day. Think of how often you take out the trash. Now, think of trash day and driving through your neighborhood seeing all of the trash at the end of everyone's driveways. Trash day happens twice a week in our neighborhood. Now, try to wrap your thoughts around every home and business in this Country (not even the entire world, just our own Country) and the trash that we all produce daily, let alone weekly, monthly, yearly, in a lifetime. Honestly, I don't know where it all goes (well, tons of it goes into the ocean, but that's another blog entry), do you? I can tell you that steam almost literally comes out of my ears when I find a recyclable item in our trash bin (ask my girls). It is just as easy to put that plastic water bottle into the recycle bin as it was to put in the stinky trash bin. One way to keep the landfills from being "well stocked" with plastics, styrofoam containers, aluminum and the like, is to not use them, use as little as possible, and recycle what is able to be salvaged. Not everyone uses the same measures or makes the same efforts to recycle. But any little bit is truly better than no effort at all. Here are some of the things we do at our house to help sustain the environment:  Besides recycling as much as possible, we use baking parchment paper at our house where some would use aluminum foil. We still use the foil, but sparingly, and then we recycle it. We use wax paper snack baggies for snacks in my girls' lunches when possible, in lieu of plastic baggies. We pack them water in re-usable, double-walled, stainless steel water bottle/thermoses. We make most of our own cleaners and re-use the spray bottles, that we keep the cleaners in,  over and over. We use glass for most everything baking-wise and food storage wise. It ensures that we will have long lasting bake-ware and storage-ware with easy recycling ability should they get broken at some point. We return our printer cartridges and old batteries to the appropriate receptacles at various businesses. We try to find someone who can use a large item we may not need anymore, rather than throwing it away as trash, on the curb. We use scrap paper until there is no more room left on the paper. We have low flush toilets (anyone can do this by adding a brick or something solid to take up space in their holding tank). We have a rain barrel. We have drought-resistant landscaping that needs barely any watering. We use free, recycled mulch in our gardens as much as possible (some counties offer this, check yours!) We use as many natural products as possible to avoid contaminating the environment and water supply. These are little things, yet the little things add up when considering every home, every business, and all the trash we produce. What do you do to help sustain Mother Earth? I would love some new ideas! We all live on this Earth together. Let's make a New Year's Resolution to do at least one new thing in 2012 that helps sustain our Mother Earth. We all deserve at least that!

The Bottled Water Debate

I have a Mother. A wonderful, knowledgeable, helpful Mother. She is the reason for getting my brain thinking "Where does that water come from in that bottle?".  She is the reason for my pondering many things, but let's just ponder this one for now. About 6 years ago, when my husband's Navy job had taken us to Canada on an exchange tour for 3 years, I was on a huge mission to make myself healthy, lose weight, and spend more time on myself, ultimately improving myself as a whole. When I had decided that I was sick of being overweight, I managed to lose about 70 lbs. I spent countless hours at the gym and drank water like there was no tomorrow. Here's my "results not typical" success story .  We have lived in the States for the past few years and I had surgery to remove my gall bladder 3 years ago. Someone told me that having my gall bladder removed would promote weight gain. I guess it makes sense knowing the main purpose of the gall bladder is to aid in the digestion of fats from food. Because of the fact that the United States feels the need to triple food portions, plus my overall love of food, not to mention a wee bit of depression from moving around all of the time, I have gained a few pounds back. For those reading, trying to lose weight: Don't get discouraged, it can happen, and the pounds can stay off.  I was skinny for about 5 years after losing all that weight originally. I have to say that life comes into play, and I am guilty of losing all control the past 2 years. Now, I will have to work double time to get back to 130 lbs. Anyway, (I am so good at losing sight of the current topic!) this is about water, no? WATER....the most important element in our bodies. About 60% of our body weight comes from water. As we already know, water is more important than food when it comes to survival. But, water can also be bad for us. How so? Water can carry contaminants, carcinogens, diseases, and more. The bottle the water is in can contain leaching chemicals (like Bisphenol A).  When truly giving this topic consideration, we need to go back to the initial source of any water, bottled, tap, or otherwise.


This definition table comes from the FDA:

Table 1. Various types of bottled water.

TYPE	DEFINITION
Artesian Water	Water from a well tapping a confined aquifer in which the water level stands at some height above the top of the aquifer.
Mineral Water	Water containing not less than 250 ppm total dissolved solids that originates from a geologically and physically protected underground water source. Mineral water is characterized by constant levels and relative proportions of minerals and trace elements at the source. No minerals may be added to mineral water.
Purified Water	Water that is produced by distillation, deionization, reverse osmosis or other suitable processes and that meets the definition of "purified water" in the U.S. Pharmacopeia, 23d Revision, Jan. 1, 1995. As appropriate, also may be called "demineralized water," "deionized water," "distilled water," and "reverse osmosis water."
Sparkling Bottled Water	Water that, after treatment and possible replacement of carbon dioxide, contains the same amount of carbon dioxide that it had at emergence from the source.
Spring Water	Water derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the surface of the earth at an identified location. Spring water may be collected at the spring or through a bore hole tapping the underground formation feeding the spring, but there are additional requirements for use of a bore hole.

Growing up we had artesian well water, and it tasted great! It was cold from the tap, especially in the winter. "Town" or "City" water would be considered purified. I have lived with this kind of water all over the United States. In Southern Texas, the city water was so full of chlorine that when I took a shower it smelled like an indoor swimming pool area and my eyes would burn. At one house I lived in there was an ample amount of sulfur in the water so the water smelled of rotten eggs. That was not nice. I also worked at a restaurant where the water was so bad, a customer walked into the back kitchen, holding her glass of foul smelling water while yelling, "How dare you serve this water?".  Water has so many variables. There are so many things that can contaminate it and spoil it's taste or consequently, enhance it's flavor with benefits (minerals).

I can barely remember when bottled water hit the market. It was definitely a luxury item at first. Most bottled waters that I would see on the store shelves were from other countries, like Iceland or France. Evian is the first brand I recall ever seeing and it cost about $2 per bottle, if not more.  I thought to myself, at the time, who the heck would PAY for a bottle of water? Now look at "us". What office or waiting area doesn't have a huge water cooler? What soda machine doesn't have a bottled water selection? Most cafes and eateries only offer bottled water (and you have to shamelessly beg for "free" water out of the tap if you don't want to pay for the bottled water).

Investigations have been performed to dissect bottled water brands. Here are the findings that were conducted for the Environmental Working Group on some name brand bottled waters and the chemicals that were carried in these waters: http://www.ewg.org/reports/BottledWater/Bottled-Water-Quality-Investigation


Bottom line of the reports:

"Two of 10 brands tested, Walmart's and Giant's store brands, bore the chemical signature of standard municipal water treatment — a cocktail of chlorine disinfection byproducts, and for Giant water, even fluoride. In other words, this bottled water was chemically indistinguishable from tap water. "

 So, some bottled water is just expensive tap water- in a bottle.

It would be so nice to know EXACTLY where my water comes from (just as I wish I knew exactly all of my food comes from).
In my own conclusion, I feel that spring water, out of a real spring, that is no where near industrial sites, or anything that can contaminate it's underground source, is the way nature intended. Of course, I want it tested before I drink it ;o)
Because of all that I have read on this subject, I did not believe there was a water out there that is true SPRING WATER, tested for purity then put direct into a bottle to be sold.  There is one such brand of bottled water available by Beyond Organic. It comes from a true spring, at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Georgia surrounded by 130 acres of organic land. Here is it's story: http://organicforlife.mybeyondorganic.com/Web/us/en/products-beverages-overview.dhtml
To purchase this true "Reign" spring water, it costs less than $.90 per bottle.  It's packaged in a BPA free, recyclable bottle. My children seem to go for anything that is packaged (rather than re-filling a water thermos). I prefer they grab one of these waters from the refrigerator than run out of the house without any hydration. It's also nice for us when we are in a hurry to leave and need to grab some water for the road. For the benefits of true Spring water, I think it's a deal.