Read more at NYTimes: It�s Organic, but Does That Mean It�s Safer?

I don't think that there is much doubt about the value of "organic food" but this quote pretty much sums it up.

Well if the plants are dirty, such as the ones listed above in Texas and Georgia, nothing's safe- organic or not.

Personally, I would never eat peanut butter because it is universally contaminated with fungus. Doesn't matter if it's "organic" or not. This is the reason why so many people are allergic to the stuff. If you have too much fungus in your body, you will have an allergic reaction to peanuts. Fungus is in the shells of peanuts and contaminates the pea. Actually, peanuts are not really nuts, they are peas. I learned about this watching Know the Cause on tv, but you can go to the website Know the cause Home Page Hosted by Doug Kaufmann and watch it online or find out what channel it is on in your area. The main topic of Know the Cause is fungus!

Eating Food That�s Better for You, Organic or Not

In the six-and-one-half years since the federal government began certifying food as �organic,� Americans have taken to the idea with considerable enthusiasm. Sales have at least doubled, and three-quarters of the nation�s grocery stores now carry at least some organic food. A Harris poll in October 2007 found that about 30 percent of Americans buy organic food at least on occasion, and most think it is safer, better for the environment and healthier.

�People believe it must be better for you if it�s organic,� says Phil Howard, an assistant professor of community, food and agriculture at Michigan State University.

So I discovered on a recent book tour around the United States and Canada.

No matter how carefully I avoided using the word �organic� when I spoke to groups of food enthusiasts about how to eat better, someone in the audience would inevitably ask, �What if I can�t afford to buy organic food?� It seems to have become the magic cure-all, synonymous with eating well, healthfully, sanely, even ethically.

But eating �organic� offers no guarantee of any of that. And the truth is that most Americans eat so badly � we get 7 percent of our calories from soft drinks, more than we do from vegetables; the top food group by caloric intake is �sweets�; and one-third of nation�s adults are now obese � that the organic question is a secondary one. It�s not unimportant, but it�s not the primary issue in the way Americans eat.

To eat well, says Michael Pollan, the author of �In Defense of Food,� means avoiding �edible food-like substances� and sticking to real ingredients, increasingly from the plant kingdom. (Americans each consume an average of nearly two pounds a day of animal products.) There�s plenty of evidence that both a person�s health � as well as the environment�s � will improve with a simple shift in eating habits away from animal products and highly processed foods to plant products and what might be called �real food.� (With all due respect to people in the �food movement,� the food need not be �slow,� either.)

From these changes, Americans would reduce the amount of land, water and chemicals used to produce the food we eat, as well as the incidence of lifestyle diseases linked to unhealthy diets, and greenhouse gases from industrial meat production. All without legislation.

And the food would not necessarily have to be organic, which, under the United States Department of Agriculture�s definition, means it is generally free of synthetic substances; contains no antibiotics and hormones; has not been irradiated or fertilized with sewage sludge; was raised without the use of most conventional pesticides; and contains no genetically modified ingredients.

Those requirements, which must be met in order for food to be labeled �U.S.D.A. Organic,� are fine, of course. But they still fall short of the lofty dreams of early organic farmers and consumers who gave the word �organic� its allure � of returning natural nutrients and substance to the soil in the same proportion used by the growing process (there is no requirement that this be done); of raising animals humanely in accordance with nature (animals must be given access to the outdoors, but for how long and under what conditions is not spelled out); and of producing the most nutritious food possible (the evidence is mixed on whether organic food is more nutritious) in the most ecologically conscious way.

The government�s organic program, says Joan Shaffer, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, �is a marketing program that sets standards for what can be certified as organic. Neither the enabling legislation nor the regulations address food safety or nutrition.�

People don�t understand that, nor do they realize �organic� doesn�t mean �local.� �It doesn�t matter if it�s from the farm down the road or from Chile,� Ms. Shaffer said. �As long as it meets the standards it�s organic.�

Hence, the organic status of salmon flown in from Chile, or of frozen vegetables grown in China and sold in the United States � no matter the size of the carbon footprint left behind by getting from there to here.

Today, most farmers who practice truly sustainable farming, or what you might call �organic in spirit,� operate on small scale, some so small they can�t afford the requirements to be certified organic by the government. Others say that certification isn�t meaningful enough to bother. These farmers argue that, �When you buy organic you don�t just buy a product, you buy a way of life that is committed to not exploiting the planet,� says Ed Maltby, executive director of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance.

But the organic food business is now big business, and getting bigger. Professor Howard estimates that major corporations now are responsible for at least 25 percent of all organic manufacturing and marketing (40 percent if you count only processed organic foods). Much of the nation�s organic food is as much a part of industrial food production as midwinter grapes, and becoming more so. In 2006, sales of organic foods and beverages totaled about $16.7 billion, according to the most recent figures from Organic Trade Association.

Still, those sales amounted to slightly less than 3 percent of overall food and beverage sales. For all the hoo-ha, organic food is not making much of an impact on the way Americans eat, though, as Mark Kastel, co-founder of The Cornucopia Institute, puts it: �There are generic benefits from doing organics. It protects the land from the ravages of conventional agriculture,� and safeguards farm workers from being exposed to pesticides.

But the questions remain over how we eat in general. It may feel better to eat an organic Oreo than a conventional Oreo, but, says Marion Nestle, a professor at New York University�s department of nutrition, food studies and public health, �Organic junk food is still junk food.�

Last week, Michelle Obama began digging up a patch of the South Lawn of the White House to plant an organic vegetable garden to provide food for the first family and, more important, to educate children about healthy, locally grown fruits and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become national concerns.

But Mrs. Obama also emphasized that there were many changes Americans can make if they don�t have the time or space for an organic garden.

�You can begin in your own cupboard,� she said, �by eliminating processed food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables.�

Popularizing such choices may not be as marketable as creating a logo that says �organic.� But when Americans have had their fill of �value-added� and overprocessed food, perhaps they can begin producing and consuming more food that treats animals and the land as if they mattered. Some of that food will be organic, and hooray for that. Meanwhile, they should remember that the word itself is not synonymous with �safe,� �healthy,� �fair� or even necessarily �good.�

Perhaps this is not all that organic food should be but it is a huge improvement over the typical grocery store fare.

__________________
This is not medical advice. Just opinion. Whatever you decide to do your your health is strictly your business and your choice.
Visit www.HealthSalon.org

You must understand that this is the kind of thing the nay sayers love to hear about so as to add weight to their "why bother?" case.

As has been pointed out this could have happened in any instance of dirty plants. And anyone who got the idea organic meant free and perfect perhaps deluded themslef. But its about what it can improve that is key.

I know anohter thing that comes up alot os people who choose organic do it for taste. Well for one thing I never went for taste at all. I was looking to cut down on persticides, toxins and metals. It had nothing to do with taste. And while its very possible that not having these poisons would make for a better flavour there is no guarntee it does taste better at all. And I concide that there are many things where taste may not be any different. Still Id rather that than a mouthful of Mercury and Arsnic.

we live in a world of sensationalist media people where press feed off hysteria. But one or two bad and possibly unaviodable instances do not make an entire food choice system bad and we should throw the baby out with the bath water.

I prefer organic food because I dn't like the idea of ingesting fertilizer and
pesticides.

True, and organic is proven to have more nutrients as well.

I agree with sally B. peanut butter isn't a food, its a slow acting poison.

__________________
Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)

I have to agree that organic is better. It has been proven to have more nutrients and has the obvious benefit of no pesticides. I believe it also can not be GMO. Contamination can happen anywhere and is more of a comment on the individual food supplier or farmer, than organic food as a whole. A few of the recent cases of salmonilla and such things on spinach is an excuse for them to irradiate our food supply. What they don't tell you is that the farms that gew these crops are downstream from factory farmed cattle, pig or chicken plants and it is these plants that are contaminating the plants. Factory type agriculture and factory type feedlots cause more problems then 99% of the population are aware of. Research it!!!

That is a very good point well made. Unfortunately its only us reading this and such info seldom gets out into the public.

Im reminded of a recent news article which almost had me writing an email to the BBC on the spot as I was so incensed. All about allergies and how it is claimed "we dont know the causes but we suspect its down to our being too clean" and using the idea of the countryside people having less incidence of them as proof.

Talk about twisting facts. If anything it proves how a natural environment is cleaner and less full of chemicals and pollutants that we have in modern towns and cities. I am still amazed this "theory" is being pedled by mainsteam sicentists and classifed as news by the media. They really ought to reasses what they are calling clean. The chemicals in your house caprpet and the pollution in the air are enough alone to cause an overload of toxins and send youe body into overdrive causing these allergies. In the country we have less and yet its claimed these areas are dirty. Confusing tail end with the head. Yet this myth is still in common use.

In short we must lead by example.