by Lauren Todd

Created on: March 28, 2010

To define organic food properly one must includes all attributes of the growing process, not just some of them. From farm to market, these attributes of organic farming include food being grown exclusively with herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers made of animal and vegetable proteins, period. Any other growth management substances used makes the process non-organic. The other attribute of all organic food is that it is grown without the use of growth hormones or genetic modifications being done to either plants or animals. From farm to market, this model must be strictly observed or else the food produced does not fit a true definition of organic. Another attribute is food that is grown in symbiosis with the natural processes.

Definition of an organic farm -

"An organic farm, properly speaking, is not one that uses certain methods and substances and avoids others; it is a farm whose structure is formed in imitation of the structure of a natural system that has the integrity, the independence and the benign dependence of an organism"

—Wendell Berry, "The Gift of Good Land"

This definition in scientific terms means that from farm to market, the food is grown using carbon-based organisms exclusively. From the land that is being grown on, to the elements used for growth management, to the feed for the animals, absolutely everything must have the natural compound of carbon-hydrogen at its base, in other words all elements used in food production must be organic, not synthetic - not artificial.

So to combine all of these versions of organic - a general definition, (an overall dictionary type definition) and the definition of an organic farm (the proper definition) and the scientific definition, we arrive at:

Organic Food -From farm to market, food that is processed using elements, exclusively derived from carbon-based organisms, with each step of production in sync with the symbiotic and independent relationships, found in nature.

While you are out thinking about what food is organic and what food is not, bear in mind that food that is purchased retail that carries the “USDA Organic” green and white sticker, which means it has to be made with 95% organic ingredients - one ingredient that is not organic, might be found at the very bottom of the list of ingredients on the label. Food that is purchased that bears the sticker - “made with organic ingredients,” has to be made with 70% organic ingredients. So, I will leave you to contemplate the all inclusive definition that I have enclosed here; which took me about ten minutes to come up with:)

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