ORGANIC

Why should I buy organic food for my baby?

Limit Your Family's Exposure To Pesticides:

Children may be at risk of higher exposure to the toxins found in nonorganic food because they consume more fruits and vegetables per unit of body weight than adults, and these foods can sometimes be more condensed, potentially concentrating pesticide residues. 

Prevent Water Contamination:

Conventional agricultural methods can cause water contamination. The organic farmer's elimination of polluting chemicals and nitrogen leaching, in combination with soil building, works to prevent contamination, and protects and conserves water resources.

Prevent Top-Soil Erosion and Promote Healthy Soil:

Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming, but in conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position, so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result, farms are suffering from soil erosion.

Conserve Energy:

Organic farming is mainly based on labor-intensive practices such as weeding by hand and using green manures and crop covers rather than synthetic fertilizers (primarily made from petroleum products) to build up soil.

Protect Those Who Work the Land:

A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a 6 times greater risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in California, and their children suffer from contamination as well.

Support Family Farms and Lessen Government Spending on Subsidies and Damage Control:

Your organic purchases lessen the hidden costs in pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean-up, and, not to mention, severe damages to our environment. In the long term, purchasing organic foods saves everyone money.

What does organic mean?

The National Organic Standards Board Definition of "Organic": (From the Organic Trade Association)
"Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.

'Organic' is a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act. The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole.

Organic agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water.

Organic food handlers, processors and retailers adhere to standards that maintain the integrity of organic agricultural products. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.

Organic Food is never Genetically Engineered or Modified and is never produced with the use of Ionizing Radiation or Sewage Sludge for fertilization.”

What does it mean when a product carries the USDA organic seal?

The USDA Organic Seal may only be used on products that are 95-100 percent organic by weight. Producers are not required to use the seal; it is voluntary.