A conundrum

[China_cat]

A certain place is bragging about the amount of produce they grow hydroponicly. Then they say 'organic' salads. I don't understand how hydroponic produce can be called organic when the nutrients needed to grow are all chemicals. Pesticide free, I'll accept, but organic? Seems to me that word is being seriously overused.

[elleng]

1. Overused,

or misused?

[China_cat]

3. Both, I'm sure.

Labeling things like milk as organic is ridiculous. The only way you can get truly organic milk is from cows who either graze on organic fields or are fed organic hay and silage only, get no antibiotics, no hormones and the milk is sold raw.

Which is against the law in all states. Even in places where certain dairies are permitted to sell raw milk (and those are becoming increasingly harder to find), the cows still have to be innoculated against and tested for tb and be given antibiotics to prevent mastitis and other diseases by law. (First 4 milkings are supposed to be thrown out after injection). We had to have it done even to our family cow in order to be allowed to drink the raw milk or for my grandmother to make butter from it.

So a label is slapped on it saying it's 'organic', people think they're getting a product that nothing has been done to and they pay a premium price.

I think everything labeled organic in the grocery stores today should come with an extra label...one that lays out just what the FDA considers 'organic'. Maybe then the hype would go away.

[Dover]

2. Good question. Hadn't really thought about hydroponics vs. organic

Wikipedia:

...The largest commercial hydroponics facility in the world is Eurofresh Farms in Willcox, Arizona, which sold 125 million pounds of tomatoes in 2005.<2> Eurofresh has 256 acres under glass and represents about a third of the commercial hydroponic greenhouse area in the U.S. <3> Eurofresh does not consider their tomatoes organic, but they are pesticide-free. They are grown in rockwool with top irrigation.

Some commercial installations use no pesticides or herbicides, preferring integrated pest management techniques. There is often a price premium willingly paid by consumers for produce which is labeled "organic". Some states in the USA require soil as an essential to obtain organic certification. There are also overlapping and somewhat contradictory rules established by the US Federal Government, so some food grown with hydroponics can be certified organic.

Hydroponics also saves an incredible amount of water; it uses as little as 1/20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food. The water table can be impacted by the water use and run-off of chemicals from farms, but hydroponics may minimize impact as well as having the advantage that water use and water returns are easier to measure. This can save the farmer money by allowing reduced water use and the ability to measure consequences to the land around a farm.


The Debate on Organics vs. Hydroponics:
http://www.generalhydroponics.com/genhydro_US/quicktips/OrganicHydroponicArticle.pdf

National Organic Standards Board on Hydroponics:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5069160