You only need to take a quick trip to the grocery store to see the growing popularity of organic foods. The phenomenon of organic foods is good for consumers, but unfortunately there are some misconceptions about these foods that remain very prevalent.
Simply seeing the word “organic” on a food product’s packaging tends to make us assume that it’s the healthiest distribution of that particular food available. It implies that the food is prepared in a natural way, with none of the contamination that the food industry sometimes causes.
When it comes to vegetables, that’s probably an accurate description of what the organic label entails. However, meat is a different story; things might not be quite as pure as the organic label suggests.
Fish provides one example where the organic label doesn’t necessarily mean what we think it does. All that’s required for a USDA organic label for fish is that the fish is wild. However, the label doesn’t enforce any regulations on the amount of heavy metals found in the fish, such as mercury.
The organic label for meat also doesn’t place any regulations on the treatment and living conditions of livestock.
The organic label does address the types of foods that can be fed to animals raised for meat. The USDA doesn’t allow meat to obtain an organic label if the animals are fed substances such as hormones, antibiotics, and other chemicals. So the organic label does ease our fears that we may be ingesting foreign substances along with our meat, but it does nothing to assure us that the animals lived a healthy and happy life.
If you’re stuck with no options other than organic or non-organic meat, then the organic meat will always be a better choice. However, if you’d like to purchase meat with more stringent regulations, such as rules regarding the living conditions of the animals, look for high-welfare labels, such as the RSCPA label. Biodynamic certifications also have stiffer requirements than organic labels.
The misconceptions concerning organic meat require not only that the regulations be stiffened, but also that consumers become more educated about what these labels mean.
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