A friend of mine, who works at a horticultural center in South Florida, sent this email to me today:
“I wanted to pass along a conversation we had in the lunchroom last week. As we all know the USDA has a certified organic program, during our lunch-break we were having a conversation about organic foods. While the conversation was happening the person that is the Tropical Fruit Curator for Fairchild Garden, whom also happens to be well known internationally for his expertise in growing Tropical Fruits, particularly the Mango, walked into the break-room. He was asked by one of our senior scientists what he thought about the USDA’s program. He replied that he was recently at a meeting and a representative from the USDA gave a talk about the expansion of the program to include more chemicals. The USDA person gave a power point presentation and included a slide which depicted a picture of a pickup truck, the bed of the truck was filled with chemicals that the USDA permits, and if used, the (USDA) will still grant them (farmers) the “Seal of Approval”. He remarked that there were chemicals in that truck that he has never used, and others that he would never consider using on his fruit trees. He basically said that on the national level, organic is just a word, with no real meaning…..
What I’ve concluded is (if you can): buy local, from farms with small organic operations, one’s that you can visit and see what’s really going on….”
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Wow, I thought organics were expensive, but worth the price due to the lack of pesticide and quicker shipping to keep the produce fresh! I am sad to hear this. ~ Arie