Organic food vs Inorganic food – Is there any difference?

Nowadays people are being more & more health concerned day by day. They follow a strict diet and avoid any kind of junk food. Many people also go further and want to buy only organic food when it is even offered at a high price. Then why do they pay for it? Is there any difference between organic food & inorganic food. Do you bother about your vegetables & fruits whether it is organically grown or it? More importantly, do you know what is organic food and what are the benefits of organic food?

In India, people who usually buy vegetables & fruits from the local market they actually want to pick fresh & best vegetables & fruits at the lowest price. But organic vegetables & fruits are generally being sold for a higher price. So mostly departmental stores make such organic food available because they have customers who are ready to pay a high price for those.

But what is organic food?

I think most of you have some ideas on organic food. Yes, if any vegetables & fruits are grown by using only organic fertilizers, pesticide, fungicide, hormones etc then such products are called as organic products.

It is same for dairy, meat, fish industry too. You need to use only organic stuff to produce such a thing. You can not use synthetic input to produce those stuff.

But still, there are some classifications in organic food. In some cases, some percentages of synthetic/chemical stuff to grow vegetables/fruits or produce milk, meat, fish, eggs etc. Are you surprised? Even I was shocked to know that. But it is true.

Then who classify those things or give organic product certification and how it is done?

In the USA, it is done by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture.

• If a producer uses only organic inputs to produce then such produced item is classified as 100% Organic.
• If 5%  chemical/synthetic inputs are used then it would be classified as Organic. 
• If min 70% organic inputs are used then that would be classified as Made With Organic

Most European countries follow almost the same classifications.

In India, as per Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017, FSSAI (Food Safety & Standards Authority of India regulates the whole process. There are two already existing systems PGS (Participatory Guarantee System by Ministry of Agriculture & farmers welfare) & NPOP (National Program for Organic Production by Ministry of Commerce & Industry) are used for providing certification of organic products.

So as per Indian organic product certification

• If a single ingredient is used and that ingredient is organic along with all other specified standards then it would be labelled as “Organic”
• If multiple ingredients is used to produce a product and min 95% ingredients are organic with all other specified standards then it would be labelled as “Certified Organic”

But if a producers turnover is less than 10 lac rupees then he/she is exempted from such certification.

I had no such knowledge until I decided to grow my own food in my kitchen garden. So I read a lot on various platforms to know more about organic food and it is inspiring me to develop a organic kitchen garden as soon as possible. So what do you think? Are you also interested? Okay, before deciding that you definitely want to know the benefits of organic food. So here it is ….

Benefits of organic food

• Benefit means just for humans, it should be for the whole environment and all living matters then that will be actual benefits for our future. But when we apply plenty of synthetic inputs (fertilizers, pesticide, fungicide, hormones etc), those actually contaminate soil, air & water. So if you can avoid that chemical stuff then you can protect your environment
• Organic food is more nutritious. It is said that organic food contains more vitamins & minerals, so it is healthy.
• It contains more antioxidants. So it may increase your immunity more than any other food.
• It has less or zero toxic or poisonous particle because no synthetic/chemical fertilizer, chemical pesticide & hormones are used to produce organic food. So it is healthier.
• It is tasty because it is fresh, chemical-free and you are tension free.

Apart from all, though many research-based studies said that organic food is healthier than other food produced by using synthetic/chemical ingredients. But at the same, a lot of studies said that they did not get enough evidence what prove that organic food is healthier. But still, it is true organic food production method is safer and more environment friendly. So it is a totally individual choice that what food you will choose.