Meaning of Organic

[KellyHM]

Ok, I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but here goes...

IMO, the "organic" label at the store is just a load of BS. There's not enough monitoring going on to ensure anything at this point. I visited a poultry house (egg-producing) and this is what I observed: chickens in cages laying eggs that went down a chute onto a conveyer belt and into the sorting process...where the SAME eggs from the SAME chickens were put into cartons of "regular eggs," "organic eggs," "free range eggs," and even "vegetarian eggs." So think about it before you buy the $5/dozen eggs (if you buy store eggs).

Being organic on your own farm is entirely different, but just thought I'd share my opinion about it in general. Don't hate me!

 

[Royd Wood]

No your not in the minority and I will take my hat off to you for posting. That sort of thing should not be allowed to happen ever

 

[WildRoseBeef]

I think that organic is worth the investment, if you know where your food is coming from and how they really do things. Grass fed beef is better for your health, and tastes better as well. La Cense follows strict standards to ensure the higheset quality natural beef. You should take a look at http://www.lacensebeef.com/organic-beef.aspx to see how grass fed beef is compares to the organic standard.

Question: Is this company really organic or is it just you assuming that from the All Natural Grass-Fed Label they're advertising. No offense, just curious.

 

[Bossroo]

Last year we stayed at a very nice hotel in another Sate that serves dinner to their guests. They served organic beef ( also organic pork, chicken) that we found to be tough. We arrived at this same hotel yesterday and were served a roast beef dinner. We were VERY pleasantly surprised how tender the beef was, so I asked the chef what was the difference. He said that they switched to the good old standard feed lot beef ( regular pork and chicken too) after too many guests complained of how rubbery and tough the organic meats were and the higher price that they had to pay for the organic label.

 

[Royd Wood]

Last year we stayed at a very nice hotel in another Sate that serves dinner to their guests. They served organic beef ( also organic pork, chicken) that we found to be tough. We arrived at this same hotel yesterday and were served a roast beef dinner. We were VERY pleasantly surprised how tender the beef was, so I asked the chef what was the difference. He said that they switched to the good old standard feed lot beef ( regular pork and chicken too) after too many guests complained of how rubbery and tough the organic meats were and the higher price that they had to pay for the organic label.

LOL Bossroo - We've had this disagreement before on other posts and I respect your opinion, but anyone else reading this TRUST ME there is fantastic local tender strictly grassfed beef and lamb along with pasture raised pork, chicken, turkey, duck and free range eggs. Its out there and the heritige rare breeds are making a comeback.

 

[Bossroo]

Last year we stayed at a very nice hotel in another Sate that serves dinner to their guests. They served organic beef ( also organic pork, chicken) that we found to be tough. We arrived at this same hotel yesterday and were served a roast beef dinner. We were VERY pleasantly surprised how tender the beef was, so I asked the chef what was the difference. He said that they switched to the good old standard feed lot beef ( regular pork and chicken too) after too many guests complained of how rubbery and tough the organic meats were and the higher price that they had to pay for the organic label.

LOL Bossroo - We've had this disagreement before on other posts and I respect your opinion, but anyone else reading this TRUST ME there is fantastic local tender strictly grassfed beef and lamb along with pasture raised pork, chicken, turkey, duck and free range eggs. Its out there and the heritige rare breeds are making a comeback.

Well Roy, I may be spoiled, but... I have dined in some fine restaurants in California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and Indiana States in the last couple years that featured "grassfed" / "organic" fares... each time I was not impressed. None even came close to the quality, taste, and tenderness from my neighbor's feedlot beef ( Hereford/ Angus/ Beefmaster x breds, born and raised on 5,000 acres of SierraNevada foothill rangeland then feedlot grain and alfalfa fed for 120 days ) that I get to personally select, butcher myself , aged for 21 days, which then my wife prepares. Could you ... PRETY PLEASE send me a care package sample of a "strictly grassfed heretage rare breeds beef" that I haven't been able to find since it seems to be a very rare item indeed available only to those horders that raise, butcher, and cook only for themselves, relatives and close friends.

 

[Royd Wood]

Will reply later Boss but must go and massage my grass fed beef - Might fly down with it myself

 

[redtailgal]

I'll jump in on this one.

I try to be as none chemical as possible, but I dont hesitate to goto drugs or chemicals when I feel like I need to. (like the stupid stinkin crab grass growing in my rose garden).

I DONT buy organic from the grocery store. I dont trust the "organic" label and I'll tell you why.

It's over used and underqualified and misrepresented. I've seen organic honey.........Now, tell me how HONEY can be organic? No one can control where those bees go, they dont know to only go to organic flowers.

The same thing with eggs.....if those hens have been out with grass between their toes, they eat bugs. THere is no way to ensure that your farm only has organic bugs. The flies that hatched out of the poop from a drugged up cow on the neighboring farm get eaten by the chickens on my farm.......drug residue in my eggs.


NEighbor treats his field with chemical fertilizers and the rain washes it onto my field. (this has happened here). My livestock eat the grass out of their "chemical free" pasture, but they are eating the neighbors chemicals.

I buy a new field, one that was used before me by a farmer who relied heavily on chemicals. I go organic, and can be labeled organic, because I dont use those chemicals. However, how long does the residue stay in the dirt that feeds my crop or livestock?

To be truly organic, you need organic dirt (oddly enough, that would be hard to find) and organic bugs etc.


Organic farming is healthier for the livestock, IMO, but I don't believe anything can be as truly "Organic" as people like to believe. Perhaps "reduced chemicals" would be a better term, lol.

Organic farming is much like the natural husbandry practices that I have seen out there. Many many people use the word organic or homeopathic or natural husbandry to cover up being lazy or just plain cheap. The people that do organics and natural husbandry correctly and to the best of their ability, bust their butts to do it. It is a shame to see folks who take a label and use it as a cover up like the person in the OP's original post.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm one of those who use natural husbandry....it does take planning, aforethought and consistency. I've never tried doing anything truly organically...like you say, hard to control any and all chemicals.

I believe the definition of organic does allow for those kinds and amounts of chemical residues that are not controllable like the bees and where they pollinate, road dust and chemicals being deposited on fruit and veggies during growth from a nearby highway, vestiges of chemicals in our natural waterways, etc.

Nowadays I think it is generally accepted that, if you didn't use manufactured chemical preparations to treat your animals, crops, bees, etc. that they are pretty organic, though not in the strictest sense of the word.

 

[Royd Wood]

Last year we stayed at a very nice hotel in another Sate that serves dinner to their guests. They served organic beef ( also organic pork, chicken) that we found to be tough. We arrived at this same hotel yesterday and were served a roast beef dinner. We were VERY pleasantly surprised how tender the beef was, so I asked the chef what was the difference. He said that they switched to the good old standard feed lot beef ( regular pork and chicken too) after too many guests complained of how rubbery and tough the organic meats were and the higher price that they had to pay for the organic label.

LOL Bossroo - We've had this disagreement before on other posts and I respect your opinion, but anyone else reading this TRUST ME there is fantastic local tender strictly grassfed beef and lamb along with pasture raised pork, chicken, turkey, duck and free range eggs. Its out there and the heritige rare breeds are making a comeback.

Well Roy, I may be spoiled, but... I have dined in some fine restaurants in California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and Indiana States in the last couple years that featured "grassfed" / "organic" fares... each time I was not impressed. None even came close to the quality, taste, and tenderness from my neighbor's feedlot beef ( Hereford/ Angus/ Beefmaster x breds, born and raised on 5,000 acres of SierraNevada foothill rangeland then feedlot grain and alfalfa fed for 120 days ) that I get to personally select, butcher myself , aged for 21 days, which then my wife prepares. Could you ... PRETY PLEASE send me a care package sample of a "strictly grassfed heretage rare breeds beef" that I haven't been able to find since it seems to be a very rare item indeed available only to those horders that raise, butcher, and cook only for themselves, relatives and close friends.

Its a real shame that you had such a bad experience in all those fine restaurants in so many States and none of them found a decent piece of Organic or local naturally fed meat for you until returning to the mass produced meat.
Organic and local naturally fed is much more than the end DOLLAR - its about the enviroment, its about animal welfare, its about sustainability, its about healthy drug and hormone free product, its about saving heirloom vegetables and rare breed critical listed animals / birds for the future when everything else has gone tits up. I'm not a hoarder bossroo however I cant feed the masses out there but we are open to the public every Thursday, Friday and Saturday and trying our best to keep up with demand.
To anyone else interested - you must create your own market, select your breeds carefully, be honest, be able to jump through hoops and withstand constant kicking from near and far. We have been at this for only 5 years and our farm store is in its second year, as fast as we expand and increase our head numbers demand is one step in front