Should people trust Organic broccoli from other countries?

Question

With all of these lax standards, I'm wondering if I should trust organic products from other countries. How can they be certified organic if they are grown in other countries such as China, Mexico and South America?

Answer 1

Some places like China, Egypt, Vietnam and so on use untreated human sewage to fertilize their crops.  Never eat root crops from those places.  

Hate to tell you this, but organic vegtables can be more dangerous to your health than ones raised with commercial fertilizer.  Remember the recent news where people got E Coli from eating spinich and lettuce?  Those crops were fertilized with waste water from a cattle sewage lagoon.  And what do most organic farmers use to fertilze their crops?  Livestock manure.  Don't forget the E Coli tainted raspberries from Mexico a year of so ago.  

If you know of any documented cases where people have been sickened from commercially produced fruits or vegtables, please let me know because I can't think of a single case and I'm no spring chicken.  Heck, even DDT never sickened anyone although it sure did think eagles egg shells.  Incidently, DDT is still used in a lot of Central American and African countries.  Where does a lot of our winter vegtables come from?  Mexico.  Where do a lot of cut flowers come from?  Africa and South America.

Me?  I'll take US commercially grown stuff any day.

Answer 2

Any food can be labelled organic, but if you want to know that it has been grown to a US or international standard, look for the mark of certification on the packaging (there are several accepted types).  US standard is the most strict.

But....like someone else said - organic doesn't necessarily mean sustainable, and doesn't necessarily mean better for your health.  There are products used to grow "organic" produce that are prohibited for a "certain reason", yet in the same certification (US and international standards), different products are allowed - depsite that "certain reason" existing for that product too.  I challenged this at an organics seminar, and basically they had no answer.  It makes a mockery of what organics is.

I won't eat organic produce.  It is no guarantee of sustainability, and I would rather eat something that is well grown and bug free.

Answer 3

I would not worry about food from most places as all the countries are following USDA and IFOAM (the european regs) rules. So don't worry about the use of night soil as it is not allowed.

China ia an interesting case. i was reading an article about Chinese organics in Acres USA this month and the author, who travelled to China, said the organic farms are all in their own areas and security is tight. All people and vehicles are checked for any substance that is banned in organic farming. But he also said most the Chinese organic farmers are young and do not understand deep organic concepts like the soil being alive. he also was very very concerned about the pollution levels in the entire country and said with a place that has polluted its soil, water and air so badly he doubted if any organic food coming from there could really be considered organic because of environmental contamination. but he did say they were obviously playing by the rules and not cutting corners as far as the growing went. he also said that despite most the growers being young and new to organic farming there are also old men who learned to farm before the Green Revolution and do understand how organic growing works. So he has hop that if the Chinese can address their pollution problems they will be able to produce some top flight organic food. But that is a big if and for now not happening.

I also wonder about organic food from the south. When I have trevelled over boarders in central america I noticed they fumigated every vehicle with some pesticide. I have no idea if organic produce is coming into the USA on trucks or if they are using ships and planes. if it is the latter two than no problem as these vessels would not be passing through several boarders and being fumigated (and I suspect they fly or ship more often than truck as it is better/faster for the produce).

All that said, organic produce shipped around the world will have a heavy carbon footprint from all the fuel and refrigeration use and will be pretty much devoid of nutrition because of all the time in transit, so no better than any other produce. I would buy conventional fruits and veggies grown in the US over organic produce grown abroad

Answer 4

Products are not necessarily organic just because they say they are.  There is no control on the part of our country on how their products are grown.  If a bag of rice from China is labeled organic the only thing you can rely on is their word that it is.  Look where that got us in trusting them to make toys for our children.  The only organic produce that I can fully trust as being organic is locally grown organic food where you know and trust the grower.

Answer 5

i concur with binkinkaw