I found this article printed by Farm Business Communications Jan 20/14, very interesting for anyone convinced that organic is more about transparancy, not perception:
"It was just a matter of time before the Achilles heel of organic food production was going to be exposed, and a recent CBC news report hit the issue right between the eyes.
The report stated that 45% of organic produce randomly tested by the CFIA showed traces of pesticides. The reality is the industry has always known that residue testing was the weak link in their marketing efforts. That's why virtually every organic marketing and lobby group in North America fought to not have mandatory residue testing as part of any certification process.
Its worse in Canada where the CFIA does not have threshhold or testing clauses in its Canada Organic certification standards. At least the USDA organic standards testing and pesticide thesholds are addressed.
The organic industry appears to accept that the residue levels that were found are extremely low and pose no health risk. But that's also true of almost all non-organic regular food products. It's rather disingenuous to state that regardless of the testing results, organic food has lower levels of residues than regular food, when the testing is in minuscule parts per million or even parts per billion.
In the bigger picture, honest labeling should be the goal of the food industry and that includes the organic sector. For many food products, it's not possible to make claims that they are pesticide free, GMO free, hormone free. This testing report proves that point. Will the entire marketing chain collapse and consumers revolt if we had mandatory labels that stated that a food product may contain certain chemicals, GMO's, additives, whatever, but are perfectly safe to eat. What a giant step for product awareness that would be for the consumer. However, I fear that in some areas of food marketing, perception is still more important than transparency." Alberta Farm Express
It all comes down to the consumer doing their homework if they want to access good , clean , fresh , food. Talk with the farmer producing the food, ask questions, go and see their farm. Most farmers would be happy to be able to showcase what they do and how they do it. You're local grocer can't tell you where anything they sell comes from or how it was grown!
"It was just a matter of time before the Achilles heel of organic food production was going to be exposed, and a recent CBC news report hit the issue right between the eyes.
The report stated that 45% of organic produce randomly tested by the CFIA showed traces of pesticides. The reality is the industry has always known that residue testing was the weak link in their marketing efforts. That's why virtually every organic marketing and lobby group in North America fought to not have mandatory residue testing as part of any certification process.
Its worse in Canada where the CFIA does not have threshhold or testing clauses in its Canada Organic certification standards. At least the USDA organic standards testing and pesticide thesholds are addressed.
The organic industry appears to accept that the residue levels that were found are extremely low and pose no health risk. But that's also true of almost all non-organic regular food products. It's rather disingenuous to state that regardless of the testing results, organic food has lower levels of residues than regular food, when the testing is in minuscule parts per million or even parts per billion.
In the bigger picture, honest labeling should be the goal of the food industry and that includes the organic sector. For many food products, it's not possible to make claims that they are pesticide free, GMO free, hormone free. This testing report proves that point. Will the entire marketing chain collapse and consumers revolt if we had mandatory labels that stated that a food product may contain certain chemicals, GMO's, additives, whatever, but are perfectly safe to eat. What a giant step for product awareness that would be for the consumer. However, I fear that in some areas of food marketing, perception is still more important than transparency." Alberta Farm Express
It all comes down to the consumer doing their homework if they want to access good , clean , fresh , food. Talk with the farmer producing the food, ask questions, go and see their farm. Most farmers would be happy to be able to showcase what they do and how they do it. You're local grocer can't tell you where anything they sell comes from or how it was grown!
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