Just a short post today, in response to an interesting article from the New York Times on the safety of organic foods. This article was partially in response to the big salmonella outbreak in peanut butter and peanut products, and the recent consumer freak-out that followed. This outbreak has hilighted some of the seriously dangerous flaws in our food system, and I completely sympathize with worried consumers. Heck, I am one of them! I love peanut butter, but unfortunately most pb is made in huge factories where there is really no traceability for the processed stuff that ends up in each jar.

Realistically, the food most americans eat is greatly untraceable. I try to mostly get “whole foods” and then cook them myself, but even a can of black beans is hard to trace. Where did these things come from, and how do we know they’re safe? I am drawn to organic foods mainly for their environmental benefits, but also for the benefits to human health. Organic foods are regulated during growth and processing in terms of the chemicals purposefully used to treat it (chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc), but this really says nothing about the safety of organic foods.

Considering the e. coli outbreak in organic spinach last year, I was actually surprised to learn that many people assume that organic foods will be free of pathogens. According to the recent NYT article, however, many Americans think organic foods are much safer. The article describes a bit of the process for organic food to be certified (see the government’s program on this here), and then dives into the controversy over the peanut scandal. Essentially, the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) did not have a state health certificate,  and therefore was unjustly given organic certification. Many organizations have called on the PCA to give up its organic certification, and that the certifiers should carefully consider the health standards that must be met. But organic standards and health standards are not the same thing, as the article quotes:

“It’s a reassurance that they have another set of eyes, and more eyes is always a good thing,” said Jane Baker, director for sales and marketing of California Certified Organic Farmers, a nonprofit certifying organization in Santa Cruz, Calif., and one of the largest and oldest in the country. “But let’s not confuse food safety controls with the organic side of things.”

The article closes with a woman who tries to buy organic local as much as possible, but when her organic peanut butter was pulled from the shelf and the Peter Pan wasn’t, she bought the national brand. Like her, I am unconvinced that the organic label is the be-all end-all of good food. Being conscious of the risks and benefits of eating various foods is important, and organic is only one of many sides of the “good” food concept in my head. This whole peanutty debacle just provides one more reason to shop local and know where my food is coming from!