Is It Time to Mourn the Passing of the “Organic” Label?
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 10:41PM 
Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. sent me a quote that seems apropos to the discussion currently ongoing about the integrity of the food system:
“It is not organic to produce milk organically, and then to pasteurize it.”
The quote isn't from him, but rather from J.I. Rodale, the father of modern organic methods, in a 1958 article in Organic Gardening and Farming magazine.
I think Mark’s message is that pasteurized milk is dead food, whether it’s produced from cows raised on organic pasture and/or feed, or cows raised on non-organic pasture and/or feed. It’s been processed to negate key nutrients.
Related to that, a number of people seem to be saying is that it’s more important to know the source of your food than whether or not it is officially organic. It’s the same deal as the cheap hamburger patties—if it’s stocked at Wal-Mart or Target and sold at discount prices, what difference does it make if it’s labeled “organic”? You know the producers have cut corners to be able to sell to the discount retailers and still make a profit.
I’ve asked any number of local farmers whether their produce is organic and the usual response is: “Not officially, but we use organic methods. We just can’t afford to get ourselves officially certified organic.”
I believe them, and buy their produce, and always find it to be terrific quality. Dave Milano recently provided a web site itemizing the advantages of buying local.
In the case of eggs, I’ve even found that a local producer who doesn’t pretend to be organic, since she feeds her chickens non-organic corn and other feed, produces a much tastier egg with incredible orange yolks, compared with a local farmer who says his chickens are fed organic feed and are treated humanely. Now maybe I’m getting eggs with some impurities, but my guess is the overall nutritional value of the eggs is such that it could outweigh any problems. Anyway, once again, I’ve made the judgment based on my own tastes and values.
I suspect that “organic” will eventually go the way of “low cholesterol,” “low-fat,” and “all natural ingredients” as a label. In other words, it’s degenerating into meaningless marketing jargon. Even if you don’t agree with Mark’s opinion about organic milk, you have to be discouraged by the diminishing credibility around officially labeled “organic” milk. The Cornucopia Institute has followed various scandals around so-called organic milk coming out of mega-farms in Colorado—much of which winds up at Target, Wal-Mart, and other discounters.
The point Steve Atkinson makes about artisanal food is an excellent one. Joel Salatin said something similar a few weeks back—about how artisanal and commodity methods don’t mix.
Steve's point about all the different animals mixed together in ground beef is similar to what happens with pasteurized milk as well. I think the underlying business fallacy in factory farming is that producers can apply the same methodology used in making widgets to making food. There’s unfortunately one inconsistency that appears to have been glossed over: food is living and widgets aren’t.
Reader Comments (17)
Your comment on your eggs rang true with me. After buying many, many eggs from a variety of sources the past few years, what I think makes the most difference in taste is whether or not the chickens can eat something besides the grain feed mixture provided them (indoor chickens have little choice). Nearly every day my husband and I eat 3 eggs over easy cooked on med-low heat in 2 Tbl of butter. Most people say they get bored with eggs every day, and I did ge bored, too, when I was buying commercially products eggs, whether Trader Joes' premium organic "free-range" with omega-3, the local 50,000 hen egg ranch who comes to the farmer's market (they have a 300 hen "free-range flock" but I couldn't taste or see the difference), or the typical supermarket eggs. But I never, ever get bored with eggs from my two sources, a woman who used to sell her lovely green eggs at a local Farmer's Market but now only sells to chefs, and my current source, a local hobby farm that mostly produces for their own food but sells some to offset the costs and manage supply. Those eggs have widely varying shell shapes and sizes, many shades of yolk colors, and tons of flavor that changes throughout the year. The variety in yolk colors is striking, when seen 3 to a pan, each a difference color and size though the yolks tend to be big, which I like). Sometimes I want to keep cracking to see what shade yolk is inside. I think it's because they are *truly* free to range about (not just in a very confined yard or building), choosing whether to go after crickets, grasshoppers, worms, grubs, greens, weeds, flowers, lizards, or even a mouse (so I'm told, about mice :-). I'm no chicken expert, but surely chickens have food preferences, too, which might be reflected in the flavors and colors?
I thought I was romantically imagining the added flavor until I gave a dozen to a friend who was out of eggs. She called me back to ask where I got them; her husband had remarked on how good they were and could they get those regularly?
By the way, my egg supplier isn't organic, either.
I think it all comes down to the fact that direct grower to consumer interaction is more important in food safety for me. I'm hoping in the future to grow most of my own food and buy only meat on the hoof from growers I have met, been to their homes and seen for myself that they are happy animals.
It's all back to the way my grandparents grew up, knowing your food supply.
I drive 45 miles to a feed mill in Lawrence, Michigan to buy feed (that supplements pasture) for my ducks, guineas, and dairy goats. No additives-though, as with Steve's hay-it can't be claimed to be "organic." But at least I know the sources. My dairy goats won't touch some of the packaged feeds I have had to buy in emergencies when they have a choice.
As an aside, (just referencing the 1084 individual animals contributing to the hamburger) having conducted an uncountable number of DNA analysis of multiple species in mixed samples-it is technologically impossible to come up with a number of individual animals contributing to a given sample unless one has specific probes and there is significant diversity (e.g. insects, mammals, etc.) especially animals as closely related as beef or dairy cattle. For the latter multiple highly specific-non redundant probes would have to be used (extremely expensive) and the analysis is a statistical nightmare. My guess is, and I can’t find the study Steve referenced, that more than just beef cattle were found, and that more than one beef animal was found in the sample (I’d guess contributors from one or more breeds). That data was probably extrapolated to the production of the plant for a specific time period. What I would like to see is a DNA (PCR) analysis of hamburger using probes for coliform bacteria, rodents (other mammals) and insects—the analysis is very sensitive-and you don’t have to wait for significant bacteria growth or until someone becomes ill. Also, the analysis is now available in an automated format-with the right probes the DNA does not lie and the bugs can't hide.......
Your egg story is a great example of the artisanal quality that food should and could be.
The dark orange in the yolk is beta-carotene which the hen gets from eating grass or legumes. Beta-carotene is converted by our small intestines to Vit. A. As you surmised, different hens have different tastes. Most hens will eat tender young plants, but only a few will eat tough older plants, so there becomes quite a difference in yolk color later in the growing season. This summer we had a drought here in the Ozarks and all our hens had pale yellow yolks, even though they are completely free range, without any fences at all. Some hens have an inordinate appitite for bugs, others like larger sources of protein: mice, frogs, snakes---how this effects the nutrient quality of the eggs I don't know, but I'm sure it is beneficial.
All these variables means that not only is each hen unique, each egg is a work of art. And obviously, art cannot be produced by legislation.
Anna, I'm glad to hear someone who loves eggs as much as I do. When my children were young, I was trying to explain to the family the proper way to cook an egg. Apparently I was too authoritative, becuase my daughter spoke up and said, "Who are you, the Egg God." I had to answer, "Yes"
Organic doesn’t mean what it used to. They have taken away the distinction it deserved. The consumer is now at a disadvantage, the reliability of the term gone. The trust they have had for the label, is now available for others.
It’s important to realize though, that the desire to create ultimate quality has not gone away. The new generation of farmers, who don’t have the advantage of (or recognize the disadvantage of) the label, are having to take their message directly to the consumer. These are the small guys, staying true to their standards, and sacrificing volume for density. Word of mouth, while limited in quantity, is the highest quality of advertising.
Understanding the relationship between quantity and quality, and perceiving its natural tendency for balance, is critical here. It’s not smart to fight, nor ignore, the Laws of Nature.
The commodity mentality, which flourishes in the pasteurization network, is in direct opposition to the grass based, quality first methodology that raw milk demands.
There is a tremendous opportunity here, for the decay of an organism invariably leaves sustenance for others to profit from. As the unreliability of the standard food supply becomes weaker, so does the demand for better food become stronger. (It’s good to have a strong handle on inverse relationships here). We are in the early chapters of the book on how the demand will be answered.
There are a considerable and growing number of farmers that are organic by default. In other words they cannot afford nor justify the cost of using expensive chemicals, drugs and GMO crops and therefore do without in an attempt to minimize loses
Unfortunately even if one uses organic principles, that person cannot make do on a farm income alone unless he or she establishes a clientele that are committed to a realistic ideal and willing to pay extra for their produce.
The regulatory frame work currently in place is an affront to organic farming principles for it is flawed in that it caters to intensive non sustainable agricultural methods and the idea that real foods are responsible for causing sickness and disease. What not a better way then to detract attention away from their methodology?
Gras fed or not if you inject livestock with the numerous biological and chemical toxins found in vaccines, feed, inject as well as pour along their spines, (within an inch of where the natural prion protein is located) neurological toxins such as organophosphate pesticides, and use cancer causing growth hormones, antibiotics and other endocrine disrupting substances, no constructive outcome will be achieved. Likewise if we continue to subject humans to these substances as well, then all will be for not in our attempts to be healthy.
Ken Conrad
The information about the 1082 animals in a pound of beef I first heard from Allen Williams PhD, Animal Breeding and Genetics/Reproduction who was at Mississippi State University (he's now in private consulting). He had developed a software program for using ultrsound for evaluating tenderness as well as marbling in live cattle. We had him out to measure our beef herd, and he told us of this study. Since then, I came across reference to it a couple of other times, once in an article in "Farm & Ranch Guide" Nov. 10, 2006, titled "Consumers Urged to Learn about Food They Eat". Elsewhere, I read that the study was done Jan. 1998.
Have you heard about the renegade (heroic?) UK farmer that theorizes that mad cow disease isn't caused by prions, but rather by the mandatory pesticide applications used to prevent blow-fly and damage to the value of the cow hide? He had some research help from a Cambridge University professor who later lost his funding ... hmmmm. I haven't followed up on this issue in a long time, but I guess we don't need to guess which theory became conventional wisdom.
Steve,
Our family of three goes through 4 dozen eggs a week on average. I have a harder time getting my son to eat so many "plain eggs" for breakfast but he loves french toast fritatta (basically a bit of bread soaked in a lot of egg with milk cooked like a fritatta) as well as baked egg custard. I use the custard for breakfast, after-school snacks, as well as dessert for him, sometimes with fruit or fresh whipped cream. It's a great way to use up the raw milk & cream that has soured and any leftover eggs. If I tell him no dessert tonight, he says, "but custard's mostly milk and eggs". I guess he is listening.
11/12/2006 at age 52 of a brain tumor. His original research on
organophosphates and Mad Cow Disease (BSE) expanded into many fields,
including his theorized causation of Chronic Wasting Disease in the western
US. His work is accessible on the web and well worth reading.
Mark Purdey sucessfully reversed a severe TB infection of his herd to TB
free status. He thought elevated iron plays a likely role in increasing
susceptibility to TB infection. Since Dave has had posts about Greg
Niewendorp, TB testing, and Michigan's high bovine TB rate, Mark's method
may be relevant to this blog. Does anyone know if Michigan has high iron
levels?
From http://www.purdeyenvironment.com/
TB, Acidification and Iron
24/3/06 Mark's herd of cattle succumbed to a severe TB infection during
November 2005. After applying his preventative remedies ( lime /
phosphate fertilisers and a mineral feed formulation outlined in the
published paper linked below) the entire herd reverted to TB-free status.
This was confirmed at DEFRA's routine whole herd TB tests that were
undertaken in October 2005 / January 2006. The herd remains TB-free today.
The likely role of elevated iron in increasing susceptibility of the
bovine, badger and human to TB infection and proliferation needs to be
investigated in much greater depth.
Full Paper (link on website). Anti-lactoferrin toxicity and elevated iron:
The environmental pre-requisites which activate susceptibility to
tuberculosis infection?
Med Hypotheses. 2006;66(3):513-7. Epub 2005 Dec 1. M Purdey
That's it! He made his own choice. He did not rely on a self-interested system--government, business, or hybrid--to make his decision for him. We need more of that sort of decision-making, and we need a culture and infrastructure that promotes it.
David is able to act that way only because he’s close enough to the producers to understand the consequences of his decisions. Local, local, local! To cultivate more of that, buy from the little guy! That helps make more little guys, and more little guys make more options and more freedom. Bigness (again, whether corporate, government, or hybrid) merely gives us homogenized crap that benefits those who pull the strings.
Joel,
Chickens will naturally roam about (free range) in the day, then without prodding return to their coop at dusk. We close up the coop then, both protecting or small flock from predators, and providing them a clear “home” to return to. The birds generally spend the night roosting on perches.
In the morning we open the door and out they go to eat and to take care of other chicken necessities, like dust bathing. Sometime during the morning hours, each hen lays an egg (hopefully). They almost always lay in a nest box, though sometimes (rarely) they’ll find a natural next outdoors somewhere--a hollow under a bush for instance--and lay there. When that happens we notice the production drop, then have an egg hunt on our hands. That can quickly become a hen habit, so we must lock them into the coop for a few days to get them laying in the boxes again.
Alternatively, a farmer can utilize movable coops—Salatin’s “eggmobiles”--which contain a fenced “outdoor” area and a sheltered area. This portable coop is moved periodically--generally daily--to fresh ground.
Both operations are in essence “free range” because the birds have daytime access to fresh bugs and grass and seeds and sunshine and moisture.
Thanks for the info on 'free range'. Sounds like a good way to produce eggs. Many times driving in the country I see a small sign
for free range eggs. I always look the farm over to see is it neat
and tidy which to me indicates the farmer is working to produce
safe products.