Page 9 - #RealDirt - The Real Dirt on Farming: Saskatchewan Digest Edition

9 What does organic mean?
We’re lucky to live in a country like Canada where we have a wide variety of food available to us – and there has always been plenty of it. What this means is that we have a wide choice when it comes to the kinds of foods we can buy, and we have the freedom and opportunity to support different types of farming or production systems, like organic. Generally speaking, foods sold as organic are those grown or produced without the use of synthetic (or man-made) fertilizers and pesticides, genetically modiied organisms, growth hormones or medications like antibiotics.
• To be labeled and marketed as certiied organic, food must be produced by farmers who are certiied as organic producers under Canada’s Organic Products Regulations. This made the Canadian Organic Standard mandatory. Products sold internationally or exported to other Canadian provinces must adhere to this national standard and organic farmers must renew their certiication every year.
• Organic farming isn’t easy and has its own unique challenges. Farmers need to have a lot of information, available skilled labour and time to grow crops or raise livestock organically. Yields often tend to be lower or less reliable and the work of organic growing is more labour-intensive than with non-organic techniques.
• There is no evidence that organically produced food is healthier or safer than food that isn’t certiied organic.
• According to the last Census of Agriculture, Saskatchewan
has more certiied organic farms than any other province in the country.
... that in Canada we mark Food Freedom Day in early February? This is the calendar date when the average Canadian has earned enough income to pay his or her individual grocery bill for the whole year. Canadians enjoy one of the lowest-cost “food baskets” in the world, spending only about $0.10 of every dollar on food – compared to almost $0.25 in Mexico and approximately $0.31 in Russia.
The Real Dirt on Farming 9
Photo by: Dwayne MacGregor, Chaplin SK