Define 'Organic'

I’ve had the opportunity to lead several workshops on eating organically recently, and it has led me to think long and hard about the definition of organic. Here's Webster's take on it-

Organic, adj. 1. of or having to do with an organ 2. inherent, inborn 3. systematically arranged 4. designating or of any chemical compound containing carbon 5. of, like, or derived from living organisms 6. grown with only animal or vegetable fertilizers

I’m not sure any of those definitions fit with the generally acknowledged definition most people acknowledge these days. The first comment I run in to most often, is “too expensive”. And many people, my children included, can’t help but say the word organic without a slight sneer, kind of the way Nellie Olsen talked on the original Little House on the Prairie series. Somehow organic has gone from a good idea to a trendy idea to a snobby idea.

As I thought through the message I was trying to convey at the workshops, I kept coming back to the word ‘organic’. I think there is a danger in defining ‘organic’ as the food that has received the government’s little green label. In fact, I might even venture to speculate that most of the certified organic food you find in the grocery store isn’t nearly as organic as the food you’ll find at your farmer’s market or roadside stand.

The people defining the word ‘organic’ are the people with the most to gain from that definition (and that wouldn’t be you and me). The food manufacturers have loads of money to spend on lobbyists and plenty of political power to ensure that the definition is watered down enough to make mass production of ‘organic’ food possible and profitable. If you do a little research, you’ll quickly discover that just about all of the organic brands you find in the grocery store have been bought up by conventional food manufacturers. It’s a bit of a curse to be successful at an organic start up; it virtually guarantees your days are numbered.

Truly it’s a free for all. Just about anything can be twisted in to acceptance with the right amount of influence and legal documents. There are over 500 exceptions (probably hundreds more since my source is over a year old) for pesticides, preservatives, additives, food colorings, artificial flavorings, and stabilizers in organic food. At a workshop I led for young mothers, I was hard pressed to come up with an answer to the question, “What kind of organic snack can I give my toddler?” Fruit, being my first response, isn’t always practical. And the overpriced organic snack food being hoisted on well-meaning mothers, isn’t necessarily any better than the goldfish crackers and cheezits I raised my children on. It’s a tough call. And there is no simple answer.

Until we are all ready to go back to growing all our own food or knowing the person who grows it for us, the best we can do is the best we can do. I still keep harping on label reading. It’s pretty much your only weapon against the marketing. Much of the “organic” processed food you find in the grocery store has only a few organic ingredients, most likely just enough to qualify for the little green and white seal.

I was reading today that Horizon organics, who own more than 50% of the market on organic dairy products, keep their cows in a grassless feed lot and stuff them full of “organic” feed. They have so many cows at their manufacturing facility in southern Idaho, it’s a statistical impossibility to keep them on grass (the acreage they would cover would make it impossible to gather them in to the milking barn three times a day). I’m guessing it’s the same situation at their international facilities too. And I have to stifle a giggle at the idea of “organic” cow feed. With all the shenanigans involved with certifying organic people food, I have to wonder who’s certifying organic cow food? My guess it’s pretty much a fox guarding the hen house.

So which is better - milk you buy from local farms who don’t proclaim to be “organic” but graze their cows on fresh grass every day, or certified “organic” milk shipped to you from across the country or continent?

I’m truly getting tired of the “organic” label. I’m not sure it means anything anymore. I think we need to talk about ingredients and processes because they mean much more than the indulgent, expensive certification process that costs us as taxpayers and as consumers.

No one wants to hear this, but it’s the message I have to keep spreading – make your own food. Don’t groan and roll your eyes at me. It’s not difficult and many times it’s not even very time consuming. And for sure, it saves you money. Deciding to make your own food is a mind set. It requires moving beyond the part of you that says, “I can’t do this.” Sure, in the beginning it will take a little work, some serious research, and a rearranging of priorities.

It seems to me, as I watch the lines at the fast food drive through and the overflowing carts at Walmart, that most people are sheep. They are following everyone else, trusting that if they are eating it and the store is selling it and the government is allowing it, than it must be OK.

Sure, it won’t kill you, at least not today. All you have to do is look at our ever-expanding population to know that we can survive on artificially colored, chemically-created, pesticide and preservative laden food. We can live just fine. All we’ll need is seriously good health insurance and some major savings to support us when our bodies finally max out on the toxins and we have to pay the piper. Not to be all doom and gloom, I’m just saying.

My mother-in-law tells me that I need to be sure my readers know that I’m not super-woman, that I truly don’t get it right all the time. So let me tell you what I brought home from the grocery store last night for my 15-year-old’s upcoming birthday gathering this weekend. (he chose the menu) – cheezits in multiple flavors, tortilla chips, pretzels, mountain dew, sierra mist in that bright red color you know is laden with Red No. 5, and several ridiculously impossible “fruit” juices that claimed to be “100% from concentrate” (which means, what?). And on Saturday I will bake a cake laden with fat and chocolate and real cream and then we’ll order pizza from a parlor. And I promise that not once will I say “you shouldn’t eat that”!

I don’t want to be the “food nazi” as Stephen Colbert accused Michael Pollan of on his show this week. My oldest son is a huge fan (of Colbert, not Pollan) and enjoyed sharing the clip with me. Pollan took the chiding very well, but he also made his point – people need to eat real food. He didn’t talk about organics, he talked about common sense.

I think we need to remember that eating “organic” (for lack of a better word) is not an all or nothing venture. Every change we make that moves us towards a healthier life is progress, however small. It’s time to take responsibility for our food. It’s dangerous to trust our family’s health to the government, the food manufacturers, or the grocers. We need to know what we are eating. Or as my favorite quote says, “If you are what you eat and you don’t know what you’re eating, how do you know who you are?”

Defining the word ‘organic’ in terms of our food system is difficult, as it seems to be an ever-evolving claim, but defining organic as food that is real, honest, and good for our bodies might be a step in the right direction.

How Fresh is YOUR Milk?

I received the following e-mail over the weekend. Not only did I take heart in the fact that at least one person is reading (and enjoying) my rantings, it also inspired me to investigate the local possibilities once again.

Hi Cara ~

Just wanted to let you know that I am really enjoying your blog..... each and every entry! You give so many useful tips on how to create a better life for our families and I share your tips often with the girls at work.

One of the new things we are doing that has made me very happy......is having our milk delivered to our home each and every week. We have an adorable milk box (see pic below) and instead or getting mass produced milk at the store, we now have a local farmer deliver our DELICIOUS milk to our front porch. His dairy farm has been in business for over 50 years. We live in the suburbs so I never dreamed I could get my milk delivered like my Grandmother did!! He even delivers our FRESH milk in those great glass bottles (pic below).

The milk is organic and his cows are not dosed up with horrible drugs of any kind. When you call the farm to order the milk his adorable wife answers the phone and it rings right into their living room :) He is always on our front porch by 6:30AM every Friday and it truly warms my heart to hear him clanking those glass milk bottles. And the best part! (drum roll please) the milk is actually LESS EXPENSIVE than in the store. His half gallon of 2% organic is $3.25....at my market it was $3.50.

And most importantly, I am supporting a local business! I have told all of my neighbors and more and more of us now have our milk home delivered. Thought you would enjoy this and perhaps you can even remind people on your blog that they should do some local research to see if they can get their milk delivered to their front porch! The taste is so superior to that of the store brand. Lew and I cannot get over how delicious FRESH milk is!

I live smack dab in the middle of dairy country. How is it that my friend, who lives in the suburbs of upstate New York, can get wonderful home delivery milk and I can’t? That’s the thing about this buy fresh, buy local food movement – it’s dependent on local economies and local demand. If the people near you are willing to support it, business will boom. Maybe my area is slower coming to this because so many people are farmers or wanna-be farmers. Or maybe it’s that they’ve moved up here to escape the city, but are so far removed from farm life that they’re afraid of unprocessed products.

I don’t know the reason for my areas unwillingness to embrace locally grown whole-heartedly, but it just about kills me that my kids go to a school in sight of farm fields, yet the school doesn’t serve any local food. Everything comes from the big distributor, nothing comes from the local farmer. This seems backward when our message to our children should be that the healthiest food they can eat is whole food, grown close by. “Fresh” vegetables and fruit trucked in from the distributor, who had it trucked in from a supplier half-way across the country is not nearly as healthy, it’s already lost plenty of its inherent nutrients. The healthiest food is grown and harvested and eaten locally.

And then there’s the whole argument for supporting local businesses. It’s in all our best interests that local businesses do well. When local businesses fail, the local community suffers in terms of home values, tax base, and jobs. When we support our neighbors, we are also supporting ourselves (and many times, our health).

Cyndee’s e-mail inspired me to begin bugging some local dairies once again about the possibilities of home delivery. I would encourage you to pick up the phone or bring up your search engine. I was surprised to find that there were more possibilities than the last time I investigated two years ago. If consumers create a demand, suppliers will meet it. Basic economics. We can change the food system in the US. It does not have to be about processed food and mass marketing, we hold the power. Remember that. If you want to learn more about changing our food system check out the film Fresh.

Just googling “home delivery milk” and your city or state will bring up plenty of hits. But you can also try:
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.eatwild.com/
http://www.eatwellguide.org/

Note: If you live in the Southern York County vicinity and would like to participate in home milk delivery (also cheese and other dairy and meat products) from a local dairy with hormone free, grass-fed cows (Apple Valley Creamery), please let me know ASAP. Please ask your neighbors and friends. We need at least 25 customers to create a viable weekly delivery route.

Milk in the Raw

There was a story in our newspaper on Friday about the return of the milkman. I, for one, am excited about the possibility of having my milk delivered like when I was a kid. But it got me to thinking about milk. I’m as confused as anybody about whether it’s the basis of a healthy diet or the root of all evil. Two of my kids don’t drink much milk, but the third loves milk and drinks several glasses a day. We go through 2 and ½ gallons a week. Other than cereal, we use it to make yogurt and pudding, but not for much else. When I was first diving in to this organic, healthier lifestyle, I read a lot about milk. I was particularly interested in “raw milk”. The milk industry and the media in general give it a very bad rap, so that immediately peaks my interest. I can always smell a conspiracy (even if there’s none). Other than the internet, which we all know can be very self-serving; much of my information comes from the book Nourishing Traditions. Sally Fallon is an excellent writer, making even the most complex and bland subjects fascinating. She is also an amazing researcher and sites study upon study to back up her words.

The first issue that always comes up when you mention raw milk is its safety. When I was using raw milk, my friends pointedly requested that I not give it to their children. They were concerned about the safety of raw milk. For anyone not familiar – raw milk is milk that is not pasteurized, homogenized or frozen. It has not been altered with chemicals, additives, or light. It’s milk the way our great-grandparents drank it – straight from the cow. Modern milking machines and stainless steel tanks, efficient packaging and distribution, plus strict guidelines for all of this make pasteurization unnecessary for sanitation. Besides pasteurization does not guarantee your safety. All outbreaks of salmonella from contaminated milk in recent years have happened in pasteurized milk. There are many states that won’t allow the sale of raw milk; Pennsylvania is not one of them.

What’s so great about raw milk? Lots of things. But before I tell you them, I want to point out that while modernization of food production has helped us in many ways, it may be harming us in even more ways yet unknown. Our society continues to experience an increase in chronic illnesses. While, I’m no scientist, I have to note that the way we feed ourselves has changed drastically in the past 60 or so years. It’s easy to point the finger at the environment and genetics. They are big and vague and certainly responsible in part for some of the increase. But I am more inclined to search for the real problem and I can’t help but wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with what we are putting in to our bodies. Were we designed to process such complicated, fortified, chemically altered food? Any machine not given the appropriate fuel will break down and the more bad fuel you give it the worse the problem and the quicker the break down. Just saying.

Pasteurization of milk destroys good bacteria, along with any bad. This includes lactic-acid-producing bacteria that protect against pathogens. To quote Fallon: “Heat alters milk’s amino acids lysine and tyrosine, making the whole complex of proteins less available; it promotes rancidity of unsaturated fatty acids and destruction of vitamins. Vitamin C loss in pasteurization usually exceeds 50 %; loss of other water-soluble vitamins can run as high as 80%; vitamin B is totally destroyed. Pasteurization reduces the availability of milk’s mineral components (she lists them here – there are lots). There is some evidence that pasteurization alters lactose, making it more readily absorbable. This, and the fact that pasteurized milk puts an unnecessary strain on the pancreas to produce digestive enzymes, may explain why milk consumption in civilized societies has been linked with diabetes. Pasteurization destroys all the enzymes in milk. These enzymes help the body assimilate all bodybuilding factors, including calcium. That is why those who drink pasteurized milk may suffer from osteoporosis.”

Yes, you’re right milk companies do add back some of these vitamins that have been destroyed by pasteurization, but Fallon writes, “synthetic vitamin D2 or D3 is added – the former is toxic and has been linked to heart disease while the latter is difficult to absorb.” If you want the whole scoop, read if for yourself. The book is a wealth of eye-opening information about what modernization of food production is doing to our health. And like I said, it’s very readable. Plus it contains not just what we’re doing wrong, but how to do it right and gobs of recipes.

After saying all that, you’d probably deduce that we’re a raw milk drinking family. We’re not. We did try though. Raw milk is not homogenized, so that means it seperates and your milk can be very clumpy. You have to shake it before you drink it. But even with shaking there is still some separation. My kids could not get past the clumps. And I could not die on that hill (parents must pick their battles). So I buy grass fed, locally grown, and minimally processed and stored milk. But I haven’t given up my belief in raw milk. If you can’t handle the actual milk, you may still love raw milk cheese.

Raw milk cheese is sold all over the country and many, if not most, of the international cheese you buy is made from raw milk. Not only does it have much of the benefits of raw milk, it also tastes amazing. You can buy it in all the popular forms (except the individually wrapped “cheese food” version that kids seem to love). We love the raw milk Colby cheese or just the plain cheddar. Several farms nearby produce raw milk cheese and, while it may cost a little more, it’s worth it. My kids eat it on nachos and I cook with it exclusively. For a list of raw milk and milk products check out www.Realmilk.com.

I hesitated to write this post because milk can be very controversial for many people, and that includes soy milk which has received its share of bad press. But I suppose this invites the discussion. So if you have something to say about milk – raw, pasteurized, soy, or otherwise, I’d love to hear it.

Note to anyone living in Southern York County: The farm that has begun milk delivery, Apple Valley Creamery, does not deliver this far south. They would consider adding a route if there was enough interest down here. If you’d like to become a delivery customer for their grass-fed, no hormone added milk products (they’ve got lots of other local products available for delivery too including raw milk cheese), give them a call or an e-mail: 717-528-4520 or www.applevalleycreamery.com. They have a store in East Berlin. I’m thinking of making a road trip out there – I’d love company!

You Don't have to buy the cow

In my opinion, organic milk is a must. It’s a basic and whether your kids drink it by the gallon or you only cook with it, find a healthy version.

That said, this is a toughie to do yourself. Not that we didn’t consider a dairy cow (for about 10 seconds). Milk has been made in to a bad guy with all the press about added hormones and antibiotics, so there are lots of companies now making organic versions. I have high hopes that as the competition increases, the price will come down. In the beginning I bought our organic milk at the grocery store, but I was troubled by the ultra pasteurization. It didn’t seem right that milk would keep for 3 months. That just couldn’t be healthy. After reading more about how ultra pasteurization kills not only bad bacteria, but all the good bacteria and enzymes, I began a quest to find an alternative.

Raw milk was very controversial, but since it is monitored and sold in my state, I decided we should try it. I’m not a big milk drinker. I love my yogurt, cheese, and ice cream, but plain old milk is not my thing. A couple of my kids are milk drinkers though and they were alarmed when I brought home raw milk. They liked the glass containers (claiming it keeps the milk colder), but they just couldn’t get past having to shake their milk before they drank it. We tried to make a go of it, even straining out the chunks, but it just didn’t work out. They became more and more resistant and at double the price of regular milk, I wasn’t ready to die on that hill.

I continued my search and soon found an Amish stand that sold milk made locally from grass fed cows. These cows are given no growth hormones or unnecessary antibiotics. They don’t have the green and white circle, but they are as close as you can come. The milk is sold in bottles that I rinse and return each week and it is a few cents cheaper than the organic milk at the grocery store. I had my answer! Everyone in my family agrees it tastes better and I’m at peace with the idea of local, happy pastured cows producing milk for us. I’m supporting my neighbors and offering my family a healthy food. I’m still paying more than regular milk, but less than organic. It works for us.

Each week I head to the Amish market with my empties and get my fresh milk. I’ve read that there are milk delivery services starting up in some cities. If we lived in a major metropolitan area, I’d search online. When I was a kid we got our milk delivered in a metal box that sat on our front porch. Funny, how progress sometimes leads us right back to where we started.