What an organic label is allowed to mean

On food sold in the United States, “organic” is a legal claim about how the ingredients were produced, not a claim that the food is healthier, safer in every sense, or grown with no substances at all.

The rules live in the National Organic Program, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A product that uses the word on the front of a package is supposed to be following that program, and a certifier accredited under it is supposed to have checked. The check is of a system: the land, the inputs, the records. It is not a laboratory grade of every apple. Understanding the label starts by noticing that it certifies a method and a paper trail, which is already a real thing, and not a magic property of the food.

The program sorts packaged food into categories that the front of the bag often blurs. “100 percent organic” means all ingredients are organic, apart from salt and water. “Organic” means at least 95 percent of the ingredients are organic, and the remaining 5 percent are on a national list of allowed non-organic substances. “Made with organic” means at least 70 percent, and it may not wear the USDA seal. Below that, a brand can name an organic ingredient in the ingredient list and should not paint the whole product with the word. A shopper who treats every use of the adjective as the same promise is reading a marketing sentence, not the category.

The phrase people want the seal to mean is “no pesticides.” That is not what it says. Organic production prohibits most synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. It does not prohibit every substance that kills a pest or feeds a plant. Some naturally derived pesticides are allowed. Some synthetic substances are allowed when they are on the national list and used under the rule’s conditions. A farm can be organic and still spray. What it sprays, and when, is the constrained part. “No pesticides” is a different label, and it is usually a false one, because the natural world is not free of things that kill insects.

Land does not become organic the day the paperwork is filed. Cropland generally has to be managed under the organic rules for three years before the harvest can be sold as organic. The transition is the expensive part that the seal hides. During those years the farmer is following the constraints and selling into the conventional market, usually without the organic price. A neighbor who “just switched” and already has a seal either started earlier than you think or is using the word loosely. The three years are how the program tries to put distance between the last prohibited input and the crop you are buying.