Is Organic Food Really Healthier?

"The list of structural barriers goes on. Because there isn't good regional market and pricing data for organic crops, organic growers pay a five percent penalty surcharge on crop insurance premiums. When organic growers incur an insured loss, they are repaid at conventional crop prices even though conventional prices are usually far lower than organic prices. And without solid third party data to back up their estimates, organic farmers have difficulty convincing loan officers that their projected yields and revenues are reasonable.
Many regions lack the distribution infrastructure even to supply organic farmers with compost. "Organic is highly geocentric," says Steve Diver, who worked for 18 years for the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA). "The organic infrastructure sucks to hell for most of the heartland of the country." In California, Diver says, farmers can pick up the phone and order whatever soil amendments they need, in whatever quantities, from a local dealer who will deliver the goods right to the farm. But in many parts of the South, five to six farmers have to band together, order a 22-ton semi-truck load from out of state, then off-load the product into their own vehicles and truck it home.
Organic meat producers lack access to slaughterhouses. "You can't sell meat unless it's been slaughtered by USDA packing houses, and these slaughterhouses are mostly at CAFOs [concentrated animal feeding operations]," says Scowcroft. CAFO slaughterhouses generally won't deal with the smaller numbers of animals that most organic meat producers are slaughtering at any one time. Even when they do, the CAFO slaughterhouse has to first be steam-cleaned and sterilized before animals can be slaughtered there for the meat to still qualify as certified organic. "And even then," says Scowcroft, "there are a lot of chemicals used in the sterilization and the cleaning process, so what you really need are dedicated certified organic slaughter rooms."
You Can Ask, But They Won't Tell
Try to get guidance from the federal government on the potential health benefits of eating organic, and you'll find your questions quickly and politely deflected. The US Department of Health and Human Services will defer to its Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA spokespeople will say that "organic" is a term used by the USDA, not the FDA, and that the FDA has no policy on organics. The USDA will say that its mandate does not extend to passing judgement on the relative safety and nutritional benefits of organic versus conventional foods, and that the USDA's task is simply to regulate use of the "certified organic" label."
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