"Organic" is a Marketing Label

By: Christopher Williams
Submitted: 2008-06-04 11:33:02
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With everyone and their mother jumping onto the Green Movement bandwagon, words like Organic, Natural, Safe, are tossed around like water balloons at a county fair. If you’re the one catching the balloon, make sure it doesn’t unexpectedly go SPLAT all over you. The key to successfully navigating the New Green World and knowing whether you are purchasing safe, healthy and nutritious products is having a solid understanding of how to read the labels, and what the words Organic and Natural really mean. 

Fertilizer Increases Yields

Widespread, frequent and excessive use of synthetic organophosphate fertilizers began in the 1930s, when such fertilizers became affordable and accessible to the masses. Food production quickly increased as a result of fertilizer use. Unfortunately, the effects of widespread organophosphates would not be realized for many years. It takes much longer for synthetic chemicals to break down, and by the 1950s and 1960s, phosphates from the overuse of fertilizers clogged streams, lakes, rivers and deltas, causing algal blooms and other environmental problems. 

Silent Spring Arouses Concern

The publication of Silent Spring in 1962, focused attention on the toxicity of chemical pesticides, and by extension, the practices of chemical companies producing synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Before Carson’s book, the general public was not well aware of such problems with modern agricultural practices. Once published, the book sparked a movement by government officials and the public to ban DDT and scrutinize production, labeling and distributing of pesticides and fertilizers. 

Silent Spring marked the beginning of awareness for government officials about the harmful nature of broad, indiscriminate use of synthetic chemicals. Baby steps were taken in the direction of better pesticide and herbicide regulation. Until pressured in the 1970s and 1980s by environmental groups and everyday grocery-shoppers, there were few regulations in place to prevent wholesale dumping of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides all over the food marketed to consumers. European farmers led the way in bringing natural farming methods and organic farming mainstream.

Government Takes Over Organics

The USDA began its Organic labeling program in 2002. The program has different levels, all of which can be confusing if you don’t read the fine print. The Green Movement trend has exploded exponentially since 2006, when An Inconvenient Truth, a film about global warming featuring Al Gore was released. Suddenly, everyone wanted on the Green bandwagon and now the wagon is mighty crowded. Green is the new Gold. Green business practices or at least the insinuation of green business practices, results in higher revenues for multi-national companies. 

Safe, Natural Products

With Green becoming little more than a marketing label, how can consumers know what is really safe to eat, or nutritious for the body? When growing your own produce, how can you tell if a fertilizer is helpful or harmful? Just as synthetic chemical companies marketed heavily to farmers, companies producing clothing, food, and cosmetics clamor to have the official organic seal on their products. They claim everything possible to be Natural. To cut the wheat from the chaff, several resources explain the mysteries behind the labels and marketing claims and help consumers make beneficial and healthy choices.

The Mayo Clinic website debunks some of the myths about organic versus natural versus nutrition in food products: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organic-food/NU00255

The website www.safe-fertilizer-reviews.com contains information, reviews and survey results about natural fertilizers—or fertilizers that are not man-made.

The USDA website with information on the Organic Program is: www.ams.usda.gov/nop

There, you can read the fine print.

Proactive Consuming

The key to finding, purchasing and growing the healthiest produce with the least impact on the earth is understanding the meaning of natural and organic, and using that knowledge when making product purchasing decisions. Together, as earth-conscious consumers, we can make sure that the Green Business Claims made by mass-marketers are truly beneficial to health and to the earth.

Article source: Expert Articles