What is Organic?
When you buy something with the word organic on it you can be confident that it was produced without using chemical pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled "organic," a government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Organic farms are inspected and certified every year. Organic farmers all follow a detailed farm plan designed to meet organic certification standards.
In 1990, Congress passed the Organic Food Production Act, a piece of comprehensive legislation that established National Standards for organic production and handling. This legislation also established the National Organic Program (NOP) to enforce and administer the standards. The National Organic Program is housed under the Agriculture Marketing Service, an arm of the USDA, United States Department of Agriculture.
If you have more questions about what organic means, the USDA National Organic Program website has a great one page explanation. Click this link to visit it!
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Consumers/brochure.html
Beyond Regulations:
What "Organic" Means to Ceres Organic Harvest
The word "organic" has its roots in the Latin word "organum", and the Greek word "organon" meaning "implement, musical instrument, organ of the body", literally, "that with which one works,". In chemistry, organic refers specifically to substances that contain carbon compounds. It's a fitting word to describe organic farming practices, since organic farmers strive to create nutrient cycles on their farms with living systems, rather than synthetic chemicals like conventional agriculture uses.
To us, the word organic is also the story of our values around food and life. At Ceres and OGM, we have been involved in the organic food community before it was trendy, before it was federally defined with the NOP standards, and before there was a thriving market to support the Organic industry's growth.
We have had our hands in the dirt, shoveled out grain bins, run an organic dairy, and managed organic produce aisles long before we came to Ceres. We entered the organic food movement full of idealism and we still have those same values. We are in this business because we believe organic means doing business right. It means caring for the earth and caring for each other with respectful relationships.
We believe the word organic means HEALTH. Health for the land, health for people, health for animals, health for our economy and our culture.
Organic food has been grown by working with nature rather than against it, by recycling natural materials to maintain soil fertility and encouraging natural methods of pest and disease control rather than relying on chemical pesticides and fungicides.
