vegetablesThe development of organic standards to make a sort of rule-set and standardizations for the growth and processing of organic foods began in the 1980’s, including a detailed list of prohibited chemical pesticides and herbicides as well as fungicides and also fertilizers. It was “because the organic system recognized from the start that it would likely remain a small component of agriculture, and that contamination would inevitably happen through background pollution such as polluted water, air and drift,” that “it proposed a system based on a “practice standard,” rather than on measuring the purity of an end product.” Also according to organicconsumers.com, “this practice standard defines and prescribes certain methods that are designed to eliminate (or minimize) the potential for contamination from the list of prohibited substances” and for the most part it has worked well - at least on the pretense that there was some sort of standardized set of rules to follow in growth and labeling procedures.

However, in the 1990’s, the invention of genetically-modified foods came into play, and suddenly the seemingly understood rules of organic health of soil and thereby plants, changed. After all, these new genetically-modified foods presented another level of contamination for the organic foods that had, up to that point, remained on a path towards completely health. Think for yourself about where you want to buy your produce, because knowledge is undoubtedly power in situations such as these.