Panic Nation - Chapter Eight: Organic Food - Part II

Continued from 25.07.06

Stanley Feldman

No effort is made to control the other 20 per cent, which may contain potential carcinogens or toxic material. At the end of that time, any eggs it lays will be organic and therefore much more expensive.

Organic eggs and chickens should not be confused with free-range chickens that can eat whatever they like, are not kept in battery farms and probably enjoy a reasonably mixed diet.

There are many mysteries about what constitutes organic food. If a banana is squashed and its juice extracted to produce 'banana flavouring', it can be analysed and shown to be the chemical amyl acetate.

However, if one produces amyl acetate by adding vinegar to amyl alcohol, it cannot be called 'organic'.

It is the same chemical, it tastes the same and it smells the same, but it is not natural and it is therefore presumed to be bad. The same logic suggests that acetic acid is somehow different from the acid in vinegar, or citric acid from that of lemon juice extract.

A recent scare story has suggested that pre-packaged, cleaned lettuce is dangerous as it is washed in a solution containing chlorine.

(To be continued)