Gobble Up

It seems like more and more people are turning to organic foods. The premise is that they are much better for you nutritionally. The only grey area is regarding organic meats.

Organic produce means that the food you are eating is totally natural without any additives or pesticides at all. It basically means that the food was grown with no outside help at all other than just being nurtured by an experienced farmer. The goal is that your family can eat it with no worries of contaminates.

The question is that if produce is such an easy task to grow organically why is the meat issue a grey area?

Some meats such as wild fish are thought to be organic. The USDA confirms this. The fish, however, still has a very good chance of containing mercury or other chemicals that it absorbed in nature.

We are all familiar with activists that are concerned with the treatment of animals even if they are destined for food consumption. We should be aware of this in any case.

It is comforting to know the there are strict guidelines regarding the contents of these animals feed as well as the conditions in which they live. We all feel better knowing that we are not consuming harmful chemicals and hormones passed on to us through our food.

If you are given the choice, always choose organic foods. There are however other labels that you will find if you keep an eye out for them. One is from the RSPCA. This label means that the animals were carefully looked after and taken care of. Another is biodynamic meats. This is one step above organic meats in quality.

We as consumers need to know that what we are eating is safe and exactly where it comes from. It has been an issue that has been put aside for much too long. If we want organic foods we should be able to have them and trust that that is exactly what they are.

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You only need to take a quick trip to the grocery store to see the growing popularity of organic foods. The phenomenon of organic foods is good for consumers, but unfortunately there are some misconceptions about these foods that remain very prevalent.

We have a tendency to think that only the healthiest and most pristine foods can obtain an organic label. It seems to suggest that those foods are free of anything other than the purest materials from nature, and that the food’s production is free of the cost-cutting and ultimately dangerous measures of the large-scale food industry.

That’s probably true in the case of most vegetables. When it comes to meat, however, the organic label skips over some important aspects of the meat preparation process.

For example, the USDA says that any wild fish can legally be labeled organic. However, this doesn’t address the fact that fish often contains heavy metals such as mercury.

The organic label for meat is also a bit misleading, in that it enforces no regulations on the living conditions of the livestock raised for meat purposes.

The organic label does actually regulate the kinds of foods that can be used in the raising of livestock. This means that the animals can’t be fed hormones or antibiotics, which goes a long way towards easing our fears that we’re eating unwanted substances in our meat. Unfortunately, the organic label still doesn’t make any guarantees about the animals’ quality of life.

If you have to choose between organic or non-organic meat, the organic meat will always be a better choice. If you’d like to buy meat with more stringent regulations, however, especially concerning the living conditions of the animals, look for meats with other labels, such as biodynamic certifications and the RSCPA label.

The issue of organic meat is still quite misleading for many people. To remedy this problem, we must educate ourselves as consumers as to the true nature of these labels. However, the industry and the USDA must also take responsibility in ensuring that these labels enforce stricter standards.

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