Is Organic Food Safer Than Conventional Food?

Below are some of my thoughts on the New York Times article “It’s Organic, but Does That Mean It’s Safer?” by Kim Severson and Andrew Martin which was published on March 3, 2009.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/dining/04cert.html  

Contrary to popular belief, certified organic food products are not necessarily safer than their non-organic counterparts.  While organic certification does require compliance to a series of federal regulations, it does not depend on the adherence to basic food safety standards.  In addition the regulation of the organic certification process is flawed at best.

Intro to US Organic Certification Standards

The organic movement may prove to be a victim of its own success.  The growth of the organic annual retail sales to over $21 billion (1) has lured corporate giants such as Dean Foods, Coca-Cola and Cargill to acquiring organic brands as well as producing their own organic food and beverage products.  In an effort to keep production costs low, large corporate food companies tend to utilize mass production methods, such as CAFOs, which run counter to the philosophies that started the organic movement and aided the resurgence of small family farms in the U.S.  Now that these methods are being used to produce organic products on a large scale, to satisfy the needs of retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Costco, concerns are being raised regarding not only the quality of the organic food produced by these corporations but also the effect it may have on the small organic operations that helped begin the fastest growing food trend in America.