As people become more motivated about the quality of their health, eating healthy food becomes a stronger focus. The supply of organic foods continues to rise, and there now are organic foods available in chain supermarkets as well as health food stores. But many people don't understand exactly what makes a food, such as beef, organic.
National Organic Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates the National Organic Program as part of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. This program oversees the production and handling of organic foods in a way that promotes wise use of resources and ecological balance of the soil and environment.
Philosophy of Organic Food
According to the Organic Trade Association, the philosophy behind organic meat production is to provide conditions necessary to meet the health needs as well as the natural behavioral needs of animals by leaving them in their natural environment. Organic livestock live outdoors to feed on grass, exposed to fresh air and sunlight, and they are fed only 100 percent organic feed.
Diet
Organic livestock do not eat animal byproducts of any kind, plastic pellets or any other foreign substance. Organic practices prohibit feeding livestock corn, which is common with non-organic farming. The mother must have had an organic diet during the last part of the gestational period. The use of antibiotics and growth hormones is prohibited.
Production and Handling
The USDA National Organic Program requires farms to allow on-site inspections to ensure they are following the organic standards set in the program, so that they can label their food as organic when it goes to market. Farmers must keep detailed accounting of their production and handling plans to show proof their livestock were fed organic food since they were in utero.
Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed
A growing concern that has been brought to light by the movie Food, Inc. and by Marion Nestle, author and department of nutrition and food studies chair at New York University, is the use of genetically modified food such as corn. Corn is one of the biggest food crops, used in a large percentage of foods as a filler. Non-organic farmers feed it to livestock. However, Northwestern Health Sciences University suggests that feeding grain causes the guts of livestock to become compromised, and in combination with pesticides and antibiotics, provides a lower standard of food than that that comes from organically fed animals.
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