What Is Organic Food? Is Organic Really Organic?

Written by Joey Argento

Organic is a word that seems to be thrown around a lot lately. It has almost become a cliché in the fitness industry raising the popularity and demand of these “organic” foods. People are willing to spend up to 400% more on organic foods than the regular mass produced food items. We associate the word “Organic” with health and superiority but is it really?

For the most part, Organic consumers don’t even know what the definition of the word “organic” is nor do they know and understand the difference between the latter and its non-organic counterpart.

What does organic mean?

Organic is something that is derived from living matter. We often throw around this word without even knowing the true meaning of it. When referring to our food, according to organic.org, simply stated, organic produce and other ingredients are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation. Animals that produce meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products do not take antibiotics or growth hormones.

Sounds fantastic on paper however I wanted to critique these types of farms and see whether these products are actually worth increasing our weekly grocery bill. Like many people on this planet I found myself with the very expensive organic chicken breasts in my hands and asking myself: Is organic really organic? Seemed almost too good to be true so I decided to dive head first into plenty of research.

Are all organic products equal?

It is important to note that not all organic foods are created equal. Most people think organic is organic however, the information that lies on the front packaging will really differentiate the products. This is if you know how to decode the USDA’s classification system which has taken something as simplistic as a stamp and has turned it into a misleading clump of confusion.

If the package says 100% organic then this item is completely organic. The issue is that many organic products do not say 100% organic and this is where the surface begins to get slippery. All those products we see labelled “Organic” only contain a minimum of 95% organic ingredients whereas the remaining 5% are not organic. This is quite interesting since both of these products will carry the USDA organic seal.

The final classification that seems to get consumers to blindly lighten their wallets more than they should have is when products are labelled “made with organic ingredients”. The average consumer will see the word organic written in the smallest of fonts and will immediately deem that product is healthier and fully organic when in reality, this final classification only contains a minimum of 70% organic ingredients. The vast majority of organic consumers don’t know the difference between these classifications which is completely understandable without doing  thorough research. 78% of Americans consume organic produce which is a scary number considering many of them are being misguided by this very implicit method of classification.