Florida Urban Homestead

An Organic Question

Written by Mark on August 19, 2010 – 10:51 pm -

I have had a lot of questions about “Organic” foods and what it means. One is am “Are you an Organic Gardner?” The answer to that is yes and no. the yes part is that I raise my food in Organic soil that would meet the USDA standard. I also do not use non-organic pest control or fertilizers. The no part is that I am not certified by the USDA to say that I am Organic if I were sell my crops. A lot of the questions also are about the different terms they see on food packages. Here is the rundown:

100% Organic means that the product is made up of ingredients that were all raised, harvested, and processed in a Organic environment that meets the USDA standard

Organic (or USDA Organic) means that 95% of the ingredients as above, the rest of the 5% must be from a list of nonagricultural substances or ingredients that are USDA approved or be not available as Organic such as baking soda and citric acid.

Made With Organic Ingredients means that the product must contain at least 70% Organic ingredients and will not bare the USDA Organic Seal.

I hope this info will be of help, I tried to condense it down as much as I could from the USDA guidelines.