"Organic" has some quite specific legal definitions in most developed
countries.
In the U.S, all farms or products claiming to be "certified organic"
must be guaranteed by a USDA-approved independent agency to be meeting
the following guidelines:
* Sound records kept of all operations
* No use of antibiotics or hormones in livestock
* No use of genetically modified organisms
* No irradiation
* Use sound soil conservation and crop rotation practice
* And most importantly, that there has been no useage of prohibited
materials within 3 years prior to certification, or at any time during
certification.
The USDA defines 'prohibited materials' as synthetic fertilizers,
pesticides and sewage sludge. It is also a requirement that there is
no cross-contamination during processing, which means organic wheat
for example cannot be ground in a flour factory that also handles non-
organic material.
Produce grown organically certainly tastes better than the usual
supermarket stock. It also contains higher levels of nutrients and far
lower residual
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