Is organic really organic?
“The swindle with the organic label”, was the headline in the critical paper Taz not long ago. It impressed upon the bulk of the population what no advocate of organic products wants to hear: 12.7 percent of the imported greens from Italy to Germany that boast an organic label are polluted with the residue of inadmissible pesticides. Balance: caution is advisable when consuming organic vegetables and fruit from Italy.
The background was a study of the Ministry for Nutrition and Rural Areas in Baden-Württemberg, which engages four chemical and veterinarian inspection offices to test organic food products every few years for pesticides and other harmful substances. The final result shows that 5.6 percent of all samples have inadmissible remains of pesticides. Italy was right at the front followed by the Netherlands and Spain.
Everything under control?
In actual fact, synthetic-chemical pesticides and fertilizers are under a taboo in organic farming. Farmers till their land as naturally as possible. By selecting robust types, the plants are less susceptible to pests. Nevertheless, if the plants are infested, natural preparations and plant brews are used. Great importance is also attached to a high degree of naturalness in the pig pens and cow stalls. The animals have access to open spaces; there is enough room to move inside and the cattle and cows stand on litter instead of slatted floors of cement. If an animal should become ill, plant and homeopathic preparations are first administered. If antibiotics are still required to prevent further suffering, appropriate waiting periods are complied with so that the medication completely decomposes before the animals are slaughtered. This is the organic regulation of the European Union which specifies which products can accord themselves the attributes of being organic and ecological.
This means that when you buy organic apple juice or ecologically produced sausage meat in the super market, you may assume that the products have been produced in compliance with the rules of the “European regulation on organic farming”. It not only establishes minimal requirements for organic foodstuffs such as a ban on pesticides, species-appropriate husbandry and being free from products of genetic engineering. It also stipulates that the products have to be controlled several times, as well as at the organic farm and the company that imports or processes the products and also in the shop that sells them. The foodstuffs are recognisable through the green hexagonal state organic label: “organic - in compliance with the European Union regulation on organic farming”.
Organic is better
Are the 17 percent of sceptics therefore right who, based on a study of market researcher Nielsen, query whether organic is in products labelled organic? Hardly. Thomas Dosch, chairman of the largest German farming  association Bioland, certainly recognises the weak spot in the control system with regard to imported goods. It does not always function as well as in Germany. “It can take months to receive an answer when notification of suspicious circumstances has been given to our neighbours in Italy”, he told Taz.
But in the end, only a good five percent of the total organic samples tested by the inspection authorities were complained about; only 2.2 percent of the organic products produced in Germany gave cause for complaint. This means: at least 95 percent of the organic goods are clean. The content of pesticide residue was mostly so low that it is particularly attributed to pesticides which drift over from conventionally tilled fields against which organic farmers can do very little. Inspections by Greenpeace, Öko-Test (an environmental magazine) and Bundesverband Naturkost Naturwaren Einzelnhandel (Federal Retail Association of Natural Foods and Goods) confirm that the pollution is minimal if it comes down to it, and it only amounts to a fraction of the pollution that one finds in conventional food shops.
Hands off
This is a grandiose statement, however. The monitoring of 5,200 foodstuffs, which has just been carried out by the federal government more closely, brought forth the following results with regard to heavy metals, nitrates and pesticides: up to 44 percent of the potatoes, artichokes, broccoli and carrots examined show signs of residue from pesticides. The fruit examined was even worse: over 85 percent of the pears, peaches and nectarines and almost each second orange and mandarin were polluted.
Bon appétit!
Let us therefore continue to enjoy organic fare. Fortunately, we don’t live in the era anymore where the offer in “green shops” back then was reduced to crumbly whole wheat cookies and wilted organic vegetables. Cheese counters offer 50 different types of organic cheese or more; organic butcher’s shops have juicy steaks and cutlets as well as sliced cold meat readily available. The fruit and vegetable section of the organic super markets is often five metres long and offers more than just cabbage and turnips. Not to forget, a good wine can be found in every organic market.
Annette Sabersky
Book tip:
Annette Sabersky “Bio drauf – Bio drin? Echte Bioqualität erkennen und Biofallen vermeiden”, 96 pages, ISBN 3-517-08239-2, Südwest Verlag, € 6.95
|
