There is a downside to eating healthy. It is more expensive. There are a lot of reasons for the cost differential between organic and non-organic fruits and vegetables as more so from organic to processed/packaged foods. They range from the need for crop rotation, more labor, natural fertilizers, and organic certification costs.
All of these reasons carry merit, but I find the most disturbing is the indirect tax that is placed on organic food producers by having to go through inspections and certifications in order to carry the USDA organic label. A company bringing a new chemical formulation to the food supply does not have any such approval process. This penalizes healthy food producers and consumers. The FDA's certification process is so porous that a company can approve its own food additive by labeling it "generally recognized as safe" or GRAS, basing it off of its own private research.
This is obviously a major problem because a chemical manufacturer can use its own research or other publicly-available studies to label a new product as GRAS. Assuming it passes (why wouldn't it when they are grading their own papers), the company does not have any requirement to disclose the use of the new ingredient to the government. This process is highly suspect and is based on the honor code. Not every company has ulterior motives, but profit and honor don't typically go together in the food industry. Given the way the system is set up, new formulations make it to market very quickly with little scrutiny, driving the massive increase in artificial ingredients and dangerous chemicals in our food supply.
As you can see, there is a major disconnect when comparing the approval processes of organic products and chemically-created food additives. Organic food products must go through costly scrutiny while chemical companies have almost zero impediments in bring new formulations to market. This should not exist and we are paying for it with our long-term health while the food industry has nothing but upside.
I've had a lot of people tell me the best thing to focus on is to close the loophole and create more oversight on the chemical companies. New laws could be helpful, but fighting the food lobby is not an easy task. Not only do they spend millions of dollars each year influencing politicians, they also have rotating door policies where employees go to work for the government and then come back. They are working together. The singular option we can control are our dollars and what we use them for.
The best option we have to rectify this situation is to eat healthier, which will give organic farms the ability to leverage their fixed costs and expand their operations. This will lower overall costs and reduce retail prices. If we purchase less refined and processed foods, the opposite will happen. Profitability will decline for these products. For most companies, this is the only message they will understand. The power is in our hands to force change. We just need to utilize it.
All of these reasons carry merit, but I find the most disturbing is the indirect tax that is placed on organic food producers by having to go through inspections and certifications in order to carry the USDA organic label. A company bringing a new chemical formulation to the food supply does not have any such approval process. This penalizes healthy food producers and consumers. The FDA's certification process is so porous that a company can approve its own food additive by labeling it "generally recognized as safe" or GRAS, basing it off of its own private research.
This is obviously a major problem because a chemical manufacturer can use its own research or other publicly-available studies to label a new product as GRAS. Assuming it passes (why wouldn't it when they are grading their own papers), the company does not have any requirement to disclose the use of the new ingredient to the government. This process is highly suspect and is based on the honor code. Not every company has ulterior motives, but profit and honor don't typically go together in the food industry. Given the way the system is set up, new formulations make it to market very quickly with little scrutiny, driving the massive increase in artificial ingredients and dangerous chemicals in our food supply.
As you can see, there is a major disconnect when comparing the approval processes of organic products and chemically-created food additives. Organic food products must go through costly scrutiny while chemical companies have almost zero impediments in bring new formulations to market. This should not exist and we are paying for it with our long-term health while the food industry has nothing but upside.
I've had a lot of people tell me the best thing to focus on is to close the loophole and create more oversight on the chemical companies. New laws could be helpful, but fighting the food lobby is not an easy task. Not only do they spend millions of dollars each year influencing politicians, they also have rotating door policies where employees go to work for the government and then come back. They are working together. The singular option we can control are our dollars and what we use them for.
The best option we have to rectify this situation is to eat healthier, which will give organic farms the ability to leverage their fixed costs and expand their operations. This will lower overall costs and reduce retail prices. If we purchase less refined and processed foods, the opposite will happen. Profitability will decline for these products. For most companies, this is the only message they will understand. The power is in our hands to force change. We just need to utilize it.
About the Author:
Please see more information at my website Dangers of food additives and preservatives or this article FDA food label guidelines
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