Fake Organic, Fake Grass Fed, Fake Range Raised, Even Fake "Wild" Fish.

This is almost the story on buying food labeled "organic". There often is "no difference". All they have to do is put up an "organic" sign and they can charge 30% more and have lots of takers. There is no agency verifying that the produce or whatever it is indeed meets certain non pesticide etc standards.

One recent testing I read showed that 60% of all super market produce had traces of pesticide residue)

The USDA has an emblem that is allowed to be used by producers that meet certain standards. I have NEVER seen one.

Even this is practically unmonitored and if you read the USDA requirement it has many loop holes and non absolutes that even the product meeting requirements, with the sign is a gamble.

USDA official "sound good" definition of what it means to qualify for this label states: Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; petroleum-based fertilizers or sewage sludge-based fertilizers; bio-engineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled "organic," a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too [20]

The big catch here on this label and likely why you never see it on anything is the requirement that companies that handle the food along the way must also be certified, at least at some point of meeting certain standards.

A produce processing and shipping firm that handles hundreds of semi loads a day finds it very difficult to separate produce grown from one farm from another all along the way to you.

The small family farms that sold organic, were reliable, and developed a big following and got their neighbors involved in production because business was soon booming after people learned to trust their name as being ethnic organic farm suppliers. Now Walmart and other large food suppliers trying to cash in on the rising demand have bought out these independent dedicated suppliers who had a following as "reliable" sources. Now the standards have been changed, often unknown to the public because they are still buying the same family name product etc.

Another story: Since I am rather heavily affected by cigarette smoke, even areas where the smoking happened days ago, I always get a "non smoking" room at lodgings. When this first started becoming available at lodging establishments, I asked "do you have any non-smoking rooms right now."

"No he said, but I will go make one." I said "how in the world do you do that"....and he said, "oh, I just go take the ash tray out, then it is a non-smoking room."

Biggest loop hole.....Imported food. Most think FDA regulates and examines food imports. Reported less then 1%.

The 700 tons of chemical poisoned and contaminated Chinese import gluten into Canada, (imagine Canada, a grain raising country, importing wheat products from China?????) involved in the contaminated pet food. It is these massive food imports from companies abroad that have no standards at all that add to the hazard.

The hazard here is that unscrupless food suppliers soon find that by simply slapping on the words "organic" on a food product they can up their income 30% or better. That is a temptation, pretty hard to pass up, when there is practically no chance of getting caught and no penalty if they are.

When you buy "organic eggs" this simply means they are claiming these animals were raised with no pesticides, no chemical or antibiotics added to their feed etc. This is different then "range raised". You can have cage raised "organic" no chemicals supposedly and then there are those "range raised", but could still be fed chemicals. Have never seen "range raised" organic labeling on eggs both. Some now add "flax fed" as meaning these eggs should be a higher Omega 3 content. Range raised are up to 20 times the Omega 3 of cage raised eggs. Range raised and flax fed would be the ultimate, but how much flax...?

Recent headlines out of London were that it had been discovered that over several years over 200 million eggs had been imported from Europe and fake labeled as "range raised" and sold at the higher price when in fact they were from cage raised chickens.

Best bet would be to find a local family farm and buy eggs there. Same for grass fed meats.

Next up, Grass Fed meat. Many including myself were into buying "buffalo" meat, then I investigated, and the super market buffalo i was buying was "corn fed" to finish just like the beef. The super market never said it was grass fed buffalo, you just assumed it was.

No point in paying extra for the buffalo at all.

Now i have found a source of grass fed buffalo and of New Zealand imported grass fed beef. If it is from New Zealand you can bet it is grass fed, because they have practically no local grain or corn.

This summer I am going to and checking out grass fed from Argentina; By the way there are now many family farms around the country here that sell 100% grass fed meats of all types. Those i am fairly sure are reliable, it is the super market where they are into large quantity stuff thru many sources, that problems arise.

Read some recent expose of US super market farm raised and Wild Salmon for example being mislabeled. Testing west coast super market salmon, up to 60% of Salmon labeled "wild Alaskan' salmon and priced dollars per pound higher turned out to be "farm raised from Canada. (all farm raised are artificially dyed to convert the gray to PINK, common to wild salmon.)

The only sure salmon that would have to be Alaskan is Sockeye salmon. No farm version of that.

By the way, I will not go into it here, but there is considerable reasoning and evidence that you should AVOID all farm raised fish.

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