Is “Organic” Being Used to Scam Us?
Last month’s California fertilizer scandal revealed to us that organic consumers can’t really be sure that what they’re paying for is actually organic.
Today in Toronto’s National Post, an interview with author and former food inspector Mischa Popoff brought this home again.
“Any organic food comes to the market based completely on a self-regulating, honour-based audit trail,” said Popoff. “My question is, how do you know anyone is organic? Even if they are doing the damn paperwork and paying the fee, there’s no way of knowing. “
Popoff also highlighted a particular authenticity problem that we’ve mentioned in the past: Much of the food on our grocery shelves labeled “organic” is imported from China, where few if any organic regulations are enforced with any rigorous guarantees:
“The biggest issue is, if you look at China, only Chinese inspectors inspect the farms. You will never see a North American inspector get over there. Then you really have to wonder what’s going on.”
I guess in these times we live in, it’s vital to pay close attention to what foods we’re purchasing, where they come from and what claims can be depended upon. It would appear that the safest bet is to cook and prepare as many foods as you possibly can from scratch – and make sure the foods you do purchase are NOT imported. Those are the most likely to cause food poisening.
Thanks to The Center for Consumer Freedom for the heads up on this information.
