Unfortunately, a lot of our "standards" are essentially created by corporate interests and lobbying. There was a time when an "Organic" label here really meant something, but a few years ago the standards were reduced and, for many items, there's not much difference between organic and regular food items, be they produce, dairy, or meat. What one must do is look for more than the USDA organic label on their food. In California, for example, we have CCOF - California Certified Organic Farmers or some such similar, or do some research and find out who the "good guys" are and which companies are, literally and figuratively, full of crap.
Many of the smaller, independent companies have been purchased by larger companies, and this, plus the reduction of USDA Organic standards, has left the consumer to be ripped off. Here's but one example of what I mean: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/feedlots060905.cfm Today the consumer must carefully read labels and become better informed. The USDA is worthless in many situations. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> > Date: 4/26/2007 10:24:53 AM > Subject: RE: WAY OT, but not inflamatory: Roast Beef Sandwich > > so much for not inflammatory! > > There are, as usual, several agendas going on. The USA tries to use > the WTO to force Europeans to take all their crap. Europe is about > standards, including stuff like food contents, and the standards for > Europe do not include a lot of the crap that the US food conglomerates > feed to you unfortunates. Perhaps there is some protectionism going > on, but the USA is really not in any position to point the finger at > others in that regard. > > But it is certainly true that American meat tends to be more stuffed > full of that sort of crap than ours - the figures are in the public > domain. I have personally seen the effects of this on a friend of mine > who came back from a year in the USA considerably hairier ('down > South') than she was before she left! > > The important thing though is consumer education and awareness and > forcing the producers and retailers to label things correctly and > openly. Standards have improved enormously over here in recent years, > and more and more crap is being removed from our food all the time. > I've been buying organic food since the early 1980s - you used to have > to struggle to get it, going to out-of-the-way shops run by beardies > and hippies, and paying a real premium price for it. Nowadays it is > readily available on every high street and significantly cheaper than > it used to be (although still more expensive than the crap). -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
