Do You Need a Lawyer to Go Grocery Shopping?

by Andrea Millar — March 31, 2008

Eighteen years after the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) has been passed, you may think you know a thing or two about organic food. You may know that the bowling-ball sized melons with a four-digit number on their stickers are likely to be conventional, and that the smaller melons with the five-digit number on their stickers are likely to be organic--and probably more expensive. But what exactly does the label "organic" mean?

Basically, the OFPA was compiled to settle this question, to make organic food certifiable by the federal government. It is founded mostly on environmental concerns, especially around groundwater contamination. This means excluding most, but not all, pesticides from farming procedures of organic foods. Along these lines, most synthetic materials are barred from all other production aspects -- everything from what's used to clean farm equipment to what goes into the soil and the nutritional content of feed (no plastic pellets in cattle diets!). Instead, most natural materials are favored. However, there are some exceptions: arsenic, a naturally occurring pesticide, is prohibited, whereas hydrogen peroxide is allowed. Plastic mulches are allowed, but only if they're removed at the end of a grow season. Newspaper is permitted as mulch, but with no mention of organic ink or paper sources. If an organically-raised cow becomes ill, antibiotics are on the list of prohibited substances, but aspirin to reduce inflammation is OK. Among other allowed substances are oxytocin (for use in dairy cows), lidocaine (an anesthetic), ethylene (a ripening gas), and pheromones (for bugs).

Does all that mean the label "organic" on that melon is meaningless? Of course not. But the OFPA does reveal that what we know now about organic agriculture is only the start to what's needed for a healthy planet.