By
Chitra , posted August 7th, 2010
Certified Medical Intuitive,
Licensed Massage Therapist,
Ayurvedic Practitioner
LOCALLY-GROWN: Food and other agricultural products that are produced, processed, and sold within a certain region, whether defined by distance, state border, or regional boundaries. The term is unregulated at the national level meaning that each individual farmers market, retail store, roadside stand, co-op or food buying club can define and regulate the term based on their own mission and circumstances. We at Flagler Organics define locally-grown by distance. If the food is grown within a day’s drive from us we consider it local. So, there are instances that in our area certain parts of Georgia are considered local and certain parts of Florida are not, but we do align with all our organically grown Florida farmers for economic reasons.
NATURALLY-GROWN/ALL NATURAL: USDA guidelines state that all “natural” meat and poultry products can only undergo minimal processing and cannot contain artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives or other artificial ingredients. Unfortunately, the USDA’s definition of natural doesn’t take into account the growing methods, which includes the use of antibiotics or growth enhancers (RgBh) for either poultry or livestock. In fact, the USDA guidelines are a minimal standard at best. Under this definition naturally grown poultry can also have been fed antibiotics, but still bear the label “Natural.”
The claim “natural” is otherwise unregulated and often used as a marketing term.
NO SPRAY/PESTICIDE-FREE: While a farm may not be organic, “no spray” or “pesticide-free” indicates that no pesticieds, herbicides or fungicides have been applied to the crop at any point in its production.
NO-TILL: A method of reducing soil erosion by planting crops without tilling the soil, which may rely on herbicides to control weeds.
CERTIFIED ORGANIC: All products sold as “organic” must be certified as adhering to the USDA National Organic Program standards. Certification includes annual submission of an organic system plan and inspection of farm fields and processing facilities to verify that organic practices and record keeping are being followed. Farmers and producers who sell less than $5,000 annually of organic foods are exempt from certification. Learn more about organic labeling
here
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: Agriculture that is socially just, humane, economically viable, and environmentally sound. The term ‘sustainable’ is unregulated. Sustainable agriculture can use herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, preferring to use the IPM approach of limiting their use when possible.
TRANSITIONAL: Farmers need to practice organic methods for three years on a given piece of land before the products grown there can be certified organic. “Transitional” means that the farmland is in the midst of that transition period towards organic certification.
VINE-RIPENED/TREE-RIPENED: Fruit that has been allowed to ripen on the vine or tree. Many fruits are shipped long distances are picked while still unripe and firm, and later treated with ethylene gas at the point of distribution to “ripen” and soften them. Ethylene gas can be manufactured or naturally occurring.
[...] desire for more ecofriendly meat-production processes, large companies have started stamping labels on food that don’t always mean what you think they [...]