# organic foods



## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

This is kind of a weird question, but I have a question to the Brits, Europeans, Australians and others.

Are organic foods popular in your countries (either for you or for your pets)? In the US it seems like everything comes in an "organic" version but "organic" can mean a thousand different things and I wonder if a lot of the time the food hasn't changed a bit -- it's just being sold for more.

If you find that "organic" is popular, are the laws or regulations as to what can be called "organic?" How are they enforced?

Told you it was a weird question. Just something I've been wondering about.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

organic is more strictly controlled in the U.K than free range.Free range regarding animals is very misleading in the U.K which makes me angry.I want an informed choice when shopping without having to go to a specialist shop.The lines are blurred here and I am against intensive farming :demo


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## gothling (Jan 6, 2011)

organic is about the insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides and other chemicals used in thier production and a lot to do with freshness, as a lot of what we get here is grown out of the country as well it's stoared for ages treated to keep it fresh etc.


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Hehe...I don't eat meat anyway (and I'm not even sure of my reasons anymore) but I've seen large corporations like Tyson use the word "organic" and it makes me wonder, because clearly it doesn't mean the same thing on a piece of Tyson chicken as it does on the carrots I grew in my back yard, yet both are "organic."

The science-part of me insists that almost all food is organic because it has come from a living organism.


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## gothling (Jan 6, 2011)

there are rules and guidlines to what is alowed to be called organic:

organic live food can not be given drugs like antibiotics and hormones so they have to be kept in better conditions and fed better quailty food. organic animals have to be kept in acertain way, "Chickens, for example, have to be free to scratch about and get plenty of sunlight, among other things."

as was said free range is different.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

for me personally it's firstly a case of animal welfare and secondly an environmental issue.That may not be the context in terms of business but for me as a human that's what it boils down to and they know it.


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## gothling (Jan 6, 2011)

i do try to get organic / free range but it is a lot more expensive. i love milk cheese and tasty tasty steak...

WARNINGon these if you can be squimish
organic : 



factory : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjRA1s5C ... re=related (skip to 1.40)

i'd like to get ones that were a little less one sidied in the editing but this is the best i could find.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Free range eggs in the US are strictly controlled, however, free range chicken has virtually no definition in the US and can mean 'can move a few inches in a cage' or 'runs around a farm yard freely'.


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Thanks for all the answers, guys. This thread is proving to be very informative! 

I've seen both "cage-free" and "free range" on egg cartons.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

I know free-range in reference to eggs, is highly regulated.

I don't know if the term 'cage free' is regulated though. It's probably a way around the regulations. So it probably means the chickens are kept in those giant. . . barn things, with no windows or sun. :| 
Technically no cages involved. . .


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## evansrabbitranch (Jan 2, 2011)

Cage free in the US genereally means they are in a big building with screened windows that are open in good weather and pretty closed in bad weather. They run around the building and people pick up the eggs all day. I saw it on a youtube video but I can not find it anymore. I think they talked about it in the documentary Food Inc too. Free Range are where the chickens are outside with access to inside but not confined beyond maybe a fence around a very large area. Those are commercial deffinitions though. Most farmers, that are not commercial, their free range run completely loose during the day and are in a coop at night for their safety.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

I take issue with most forms of chicken housing. I try to buy my eggs from local farmers. 

They're more delicious anyways!
And quail eggs are great too, mmmmmmm mm!


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## evansrabbitranch (Jan 2, 2011)

I agree, I am looking into getting eggs and chicken meat locally from a farmer that has no issue with me seeing his chickens.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

I really appreciate when people will let you see their animals' living conditions. It really instills confidence in me making a purchase. 

Mice are the same way for me, I really like seeing people's set ups.


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Cooking quail eggs is so difficult! Frying one is such a delicate operation because they're so little!


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

oh but they're soooo buttery! And perfect in grits!


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Have you ever cooked a finch egg? Very difficult! 

Although, to stay on topic, I suppose that all finch eggs are organic since nobody is going to bother mass-producing or factory farming finches!


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

I cooked my dove's eggs once. very organic. :lol:


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

We raise chickens and sell eggs locally. In order to claim that we are organic, free range or cage free we also have to make sure that no medication is ever given to the animals which includes the medication that is most always present in chick starter feeds. Even though we don't want animals with disease we also don't want to eat anything "extra".


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

I'll have to get some eggs from you at the next show.  
You can trade me eggs, for mice. :lol:


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

> You can trade me eggs, for mice.


Now that sounds like a deal!


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## gothling (Jan 6, 2011)

i have some strange images of finch farms in my head now.


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## geordiesmice (Oct 26, 2010)

I used to keep chickens and show bantams an egg from your own hens you cant beat them.These eggs where the white spreads out in the pan are old eggs get local eggs if you can or better still from your own chickens lovely dark orange yolks as opposed to awfull light yellow yolks with poor egg shells from chicken that never sees the light of day.Organic vegetables , fresh vegetable in the shop im a gardener and you know frozen vegetabes are fresher and better for you vegetables as soon as there picked start to degenerate frozen peas are frozen within two hours as are other vegetables for the freezing process the decomposing process stops for a period and all those good elements etc are locked in.There again growing your own veg is better than all bought produce if you can do it straight out of the garden into the pot. I would buy off the likes of beth any day as opposed to the shop for eggs .My chickens used to get an all year round mash they produced fantastic eggs and mash boiled with potatoe peelings in the winter fed too them still hot lol.Eggs at the shows produced by the fancy beautifulll too look at and eat.I used to sell apples from my 60 year old apple trees home grown tomatoes eggs and pork from pigs i kept in my garden all self sufficent I knew what went into the ground and into the pigs and chickens tummies. If I buy Mice I like too see how how they are kept fed looked after befre I will buy them .A nice clean set up with a good mouse diet healthy mice is what we all strive for wether you feed organic food or not in Mice I dont think it makes much difference if they receive organic food or not .


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