What Exactly Are Organic Foods?

Sure, the hip food choices are organic foods, some people when dining either choose organic foods because they know the benefits from these foods and the other half chooses organic foods because they read in the papers or on online that this is the hip choice to make. But what exactly does organic foods mean to consumers? Why should you be buying these products? Organic really means the way farmers grow and process agricultural products, such as fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products and meat. The organic farming practices are designed to encourage soil and water conservation and reduce pollution, so basically you are taking in a lot less crap then regular produced & processed foods. Instead of using chemicals on their foods and produce, farmers conduct sophisticated crop rotations and spread mulch or manure so that weeds are kept away from what they are growing.

Just how easy is it to have a label on foods to say they are organic? Well it’s not that easy at all. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established an organic certification program that requires all organic foods to meet strict government standards. These tough standards demand how these foods are grown, handled and processed. The farmers and food manufacturers who labels and sells any such product as organic must be USDA certified and meet these very said standards.

Still confused as to what’s 100% organic or if products just have a sampling of organic ingriedients are really organic? Well we have this handy guideline available from the Mayoclinic to break it down for everyone.

- 100 percent organic. Products that are completely organic or made of all organic ingredients.
- Organic. Products that are at least 95 percent organic.
- Made with organic ingredients. These are products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients. The organic seal can’t be used on these packages.

Well there you have it, a little lesson as to what it means when you eat organic foods and how organic foods are produced so that when you go out to dinner with a friend you can tell them exactly how organic foods are produced and what it means to be 100% organic.