Posted on 07/20/2007 4:46:26 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Some farmers in China are taking advantage of confusing rules to falsely label food.
The word "wholesome" doesn't exactly spring to mind when describing Chinese exports these days. But for years now, Chinese farmers have fed soaring global demand for organic foods. China's organic exports totaled $350 million in 2005 (the most recent data available)—up from $150 million the previous year—according to China's largest organic food certification agency. The country now represents 5% of global trade in such products, up to this level today from 1.2% in 2004. And that share is bound to grow as more land is converted to chemical-free farming. China now ranks third worldwide in organic farmland, after Australia and Argentina, up from 45th in 2000.
Organic produce from China isn't turning up at supermarkets stateside just yet. Organic vegetables and fruits don't travel well, so most of China's organic produce is shipped to closer markets such as Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. But organic soybeans, rice, and other grains, along with frozen vegetables and fruit concentrate from China are all making their way into processed organic foods that wind up on store shelves in the U.S., food brokers say. U.S. government agencies don't collect data on the value or country of origin of organic food imports.
In light of the recent toothpaste and medicine scandals, Americans might rightly wonder what passes for organic in China. While falsely labeled organic foods are a problem all over the world, in China the situation is murkier than just about anywhere. Not only are there two rival clean-food standards, Green Food and Organic Food, backed by different government ministries, there also 21 separate agencies that claim the right to certify food as organic......
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
LOL
How could anything grown in massively-toxic china possibly be “organic”?
1 more, mom...
Gee, now that's a surprise! < / sarcasm >
Ping
I was thinking the same thing!!!
..Till the check clears.
In food marketing, "Organic" is a term used to imply that Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium come from something that was alive, rather than a bag of fertilizer. It is technically meaningless, as a crop has no way of knowing or cariing whether P comes from crushed bones, ammonium phosphate, etc..etc.
Frankly, I think it's a crock of manure, in every sense. It allows businesses to charge higher prices for food that, without pesticides, contain more protien in the form of insects.
But in Chemistry, "Organic" refers to the compounds of carbon. So technically, the shrimp poisoned with fluoroquinolone antibiotics ARE organic, as is the ethylene glycol in the poison toothepastes.
yeh yeh yeh......
“organic” means entirely natural to health food nuts...no pesticides, no other contaminants, or other better-living thru chemistry; be-willing-to-cut-the-worms-and-spots-out, etc.
But thanks for your mini treatise, which actually supports my wonderment about how ANYTHING grown in china could possibly be sold as “organic”. As for uses of the word “organic”, another interesting one describes the etiology of certain psychopathologies as organic or psychological.
OTOH, some of the more liberal Chinese certifiers even consider me organic because I'm drawn with soy ink.
China recently announced they were entering the global organic market.
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