What the Heck Does “Organic” Mean?
Posted on May 27, 2009 by diane
Excellent question! I wondered this for a very long time. In fact if you had told me a year ago that not only would I be trying my best to eat organic food wherever I can, but I would also launch a site dedicated to healthy living, I would have called you crazy. But alas here I am, blogging about what I’ve learned about organic food, ways to keep healthy, and where to find lots of nutritious and delicious food in my home base of Chicago.
So first things first… what the heck does organic really mean?
In the most basic sense, organic foods are produced without the use of chemicals.
This means that no pesticides were used, nothing was genetically modified, and livestock did not receive any hormones or antibiotics. It’s food in its most natural form, which means it gives our bodies the most nutrition possible without any foreign weirdness added that our bodies do not recognize as food.
The USDA has its own certification process in order to be “certified organic“. It is not terribly easy for small farmers to pass the USDA’s certification however, so you will find lots of organic produce at local farmer’s markets that are not actually “certified”. When you are buying directly from the farmer in these situations you can (and should!) ask what methods they use to produce their crops. (More on this topic later!)
