Organic foods are often deemed as the best food choice, but some experts say the label may not have the same value as it used to.
The Changing Meaning of Organic
Broadly speaking, organic food is food that has been grown or made without the use of certain herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. For animal-sourced foods, it typically means that products such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy are free of synthetic hormones and genetically modified feed.The organic movement began in the 1940s after farmers started to use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides during the Green Revolution to produce higher yields, rather than relying on the more traditional methodologies such as composting, crop rotation, cover cropping, and grazing animals on pasture, techniques that ensured soil health and vitality. As the concern over soil erosion and its adverse effects on the environment grew, so did the movement.
