Today, we’re asking you to consider the question, “What does organic mean?” This one’s a minefield but I’m going to tell it the way I see it.
The modern organic industry has been around for about 70 years, but what does the term organic really mean for us — the consumer?
Before the Second World War, the majority of farming was organic.
With the introduction of synthetic chemical fertilisers following the Second World War, farming methods changed. Marketers of these new synthetic products convinced farmers it was no longer necessary to follow the more labour intensive, tried and true farming methods practised for aeons.
Less shirt sleeve-rolling, more time to enjoy life. High fives! All we needed to do was apply these shiny and new factory made fertilisers. Or so it seemed.
When the nutrient-deficient soils encouraged weed growth, we could spray with more synthetic chemicals to kill the weeds.
When the nutrient-deficient crops produced on these nutrient-deficient soils attracted insects — nature’s helpful garbage collectors — we could just spray with more synthetic chemicals to kill the insects.
These highly promoted methods caused a huge decline in food quality with a flow on effect of increased disease rates. This resulted in more pharmaceutical synthetic drugs to treat these new threats to mankind. (Let’s see. Is this just what the industry wanted – as the saying goes, ‘Just what the doctor ordered’? Or just an unhappy coincidence? I know which of the two I believe.)
A small but growing band of people saw the errors of these ways, and set up the organic certification system.
This system supposedly controls what farmers can and cannot use on their crops if they want to be able to market their produce as organic. Nice in theory, but as per usual, whenever man is involved creativity comes to the forefront and competitive problems arise. Organisers could not agree on what should or should not be allowed, so we now find a number of different certifying bodies each with its own set of rules.
I find it quite fascinating that these bodies have lists of what you cannot use — but they don’t have lists of what you should use!
And as a result, we have organic-certified produce which is grown without the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. The lack of these harmful substances is wonderful, but the food can still be deficient in nutrients because of depleted soils.
Another hairy area is the call in some quarters for the relaxation of organic certification with regards the co-existence of organic and GMO farmers.
I’m not saying all products labelled as Certified Organic are less than what you might expect or not doing their job. My point is that nothing is as simple as we’d like it to be. There are plenty of excellent products in the markeplace that are as good – if not better – than some of those certified as organic. But their producers don’t have the funds to afford the fees of certifying, or might be consciously abstaining from a system clearly flawed.
So do some research into the products you’re buying and be sure you know what really goes into producing them. By being informed, we can make sound, educated choices instead of being influenced by very clever marketing.
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
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I’m not urging you to give all organic produce and products a miss. But I do encourage you to question what’s actually inside them and not assume that just because a label says organic, it truly is better for you.
