Posted by Snow in 
Farmer's Markets
Shopping organic goes against a lot of the shopping habits we were bought up with. Most people have learned to shop prizing perfect packaging and uniformly formed food that has been chemically treated and grown using pesticides to keep the appearance fresh and as perfect as possible. Buying everything dyed and mass produced was the ideal grocery shopping practice of days gone by.
The rules of organic shopping follow new modern organic agriculture practices and so the new rules of organic produce and shopping otential also need practical changes. Organic shopping needs to be inculcated into consumer habits.
One of the reasons locavores and shopping local is part of a sustainable shopping program is to discourage heavy chemical use in consumer products. By shopping locally for fresh organic products, at the sale point a reinforcement is made to encourage fresh sustainable agriculture.
1. Look for an organic USDA seal
The Food and Drug Administration surveys product claims versus actual packaged product. Any nonqualified product displaying the USDA decal under false premises is subject to seizure, return to manufacturer, or demand for actual goods.
Any foodstuff displaying text or “suggestion” printing should be correctly identified on the store or pallet tag. These tags will have price per ounce or unit breakdowns. Check product information on the package if there is a discrepancy. “Organic” plums shipped frozen and transported for sale in Maine from Utah doesn’t make sense. A long journey to market means the goods are probably not organic.
2. Look for 100 per cent or at least 70 per cent material ingredients.
If pinto beans are raised organically, but processed using chemicals and packaged in plastic bags with little chemical pellets in them, the entire equation is not going to be 100% organic. Factor this into your buying decision.
3. Sign says “Organic”
Don’t depend on grocery store signs to explain what “all natural”, organic, and “healthy” mean. A package of bologna might read “healthy”. That particular manufacturer may believe 25 grams of fat per ounce is a healthy choice compared to their normal line of superfatty meats. However, many states have laws that do not prohibit this kind of advertising on products that are not in fact what the text claims.
4. Do the Math
Some items can be only partially natural or only partially organic method raised to fulfill the “organic” label requirement. Understand which products this applies to and in what cases this affects taste, spoilage, and expiration. Some fruits and vegetables are harvested and assembled for packaging from diverse lots where one part organic element may be meant to qualify several more made with fungicides and pesticides.
5. Short lists of Ingredients.
The whole foods movement caught on because whole foods have very short lists of ingredients. Any long list of chemicals in the ingredients list absolutely disqualifies a product from being organic. Unless you happen to know that those chemicals were naturally derived from non-industrial processes and produced local to the product source, the product is not organic.
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