The term Organic, when applied to food, has a legal meaning in the
United States which has been defined by the USDA, effective in October
2001. Before that, it had a fairly loose meaning, being defined by
different states in different ways. Roughly, the meaning is that the
food was grown without using any harmful products (as defined by some
committee) and using practices which do not harm the environment (much).

The term organic, in the chemical sense, has a separate meaning, and is
used only by chemists and biologists. In a sense, it could be called
jargon. (OK, the term applied to food could be called jargon also.)

rant
We need a term to describe food that satisfies some peoples desires to
(1) keep themselves safe from unsafe residues on food and/or (2)
preserve the environment to the extent possible. Without such a term,
consumers have no basis for comparing two competing brands other than
price and appearance (and perhaps past history or publicity). The term
Organic filled that need until the USDA defined it. Now produce cannot
be legally called organic unless it has been grown on a certified farm.
The basis for this action was the desire of the organic food consuming
community for some uniformity of standards so that the term organic
would not be applied to food that did not deserve it.

Since there are significant costs to certification, many growers can no
longer call their produce organic, since it is not economically
feasible. You have the choice of becoming certified and raising the
price of food to cover certification costs, or selling non-organic food.
The USDA estimates that the cost of paperwork for certification of a
small farm is $500, and the fees for certification are an additional
$500 (and up). Some cost sharing is available, but not on a permanent
basis, so costs of organic food will rise just due to the bureacracy.

Since you object to the term organic, and since I feel there is a need
for a term to cover food previously called organic, I invite readers to
come up with a new term to describe food that is grown using all the
organic practices except certification.

I feel the term "natural" is not really useable, since all food that is
grown on a farm could be called a natural product. (Also, note that in a
strict sense, the practices used in farming [plowing, cultivation, etc.]
are not found in nature [separating all human activities from "nature"
{implying that humans are not a part of nature}], so that farming itself
could be called an unnatural practice. However, that leaves everyone who
eats food out in the cold.)

The term "sustainable" has possibilities, but not everyone knows what it
means (if in fact it means anything). Public education will be required
to use this term in a meaningful way.

/rant




starlord wrote:
I know already all the things that they say must be done to call it Organic,
but that term is the must MIS-USED term there is. It is real simple, if
anything has living cells in it, it is ORGANIC. Rocks, Metals, Crystals,
stuff like that are NON-organic.

So unless someone has figured out how to plant a seed and grow a Steel I
beam, then all living things on Earth fall into the class of being Organic.