The Organic Chef

The Organic Chef

A Banana Is Just a Banana!
... Or Is It?

"What's the big deal about organic bananas, anyway?" I asked, as I studied the bunch of lusciously ripe bananas my wife had just brought home from Lakewinds Natural Foods. For a long time, I thought people who raved about organic food were a wee bit crazy. "A banana is just a banana!" I declared, not knowing how wrong I really was about it.

"They're certified organic," my wife replied, with a hint of impatience just perceptible in her voice. She pointed out the stickers that attested to the bananas' "organic" status.

"Well," I mused, "don't you think people can stick anything they want on a banana? And what is 'organic' anyway?"

"That means they don't use manmade chemicals on them, and there is no residue from pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or fertilizers," she slowly said, as if explaining it to a four-year-old.

Never knowing when to quit, I added, "Even so, I'm not going to eat the banana peels. So what if there's a little residue on them ... it'll peel right off!"

With that, she grabbed the bunch I was holding and split off a nice big, fat, yellow banana. She handed it to me and said, "Here! Just try it and see what you think."

It looked just like any ordinary banana, but when I bit into it, the sweet complexity of flavors and aroma flashed me back to a time 40 years ago, a time when bananas still tasted like bananas. I had forgotten how wonderful a banana could and should taste. Soft and creamy, the fine-grained texture was exquisite! I just had to have another one. With a knowing smile, my wife handed me another one. She had me hooked.

Rediscovering Good Taste

I soon discovered that the taste, texture, and aroma of everything organic was sublime. Red beets don't taste like muddy tree roots. They're sweet and fragrant, giving only slight resistance to the bite, as they explode and melt in your mouth with a burst of flavor. Tomatoes aren't hard, pulpy, tasteless, dry orbs, picked green and left in the back room to ripen under the heat of the meat locker's heat exchangers. They're juicy, tender, and robust, with an aroma that fills the kitchen as soon as you draw a knife through them. Cantaloupe aren't rubbery, dry lumps that taste and smell of moldy earth; they're sweet, juicy, fragrant and fine grained a better treat than candy! Everything organic tastes as good as the produce I remember picking from my mom's garden, and it all tastes better than any of their "conventionally" grown counterparts.

But all of this goodness seems underplayed by many advocates of organic meat, dairy, eggs, fruit, and vegetables. They tended to focus on the ecological issues, preaching to the choir, when the real issue is the quality of the food we eat. We need to convince the general public that organic foods are superior, not on philosophical grounds, but on the palate. Superior flavor, aroma, texture, and nutritional value are the tangible benefits that people can sink their teeth into. Marketing efforts need to focus on products, not on concepts.

This is not to say that the ecological issues are unimportant, but it is to say that the real proof is in the pudding, so to speak. For more information on the benefits of organic farming on our environment, check out some of our favorite links.

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Are Certified Organic Foods Better?

Better Food

Better flavor
Better texture

Better aroma
Better nutrition
No synthetic pesticides
No synthetic herbicides
No synthetic fungicides
No preservatives
No additives
No irradiation

Better Ecology

Naturally enriched soil
Drought resistant soil
Less groundwater pollution
Improved biodiversity
No genetic modifications

Is It Really Organic?

There are several degrees of "organic," depending upon the percentage of organic ingredients in the foods you buy.

Foods labeled "100% Organic" contain only organic grown and processed ingredients. Such foods are allowed to use the USDA Organic logo on their packaging.

Foods labeled "Organic" are those with 95% to 99% of their ingredients being organic. These foods may also display the USDA Organic logo.

Foods labeled "Made with Organic Ingredients" are those with 70% to 94% of their ingredients being organic. The USDA Organic logo may not be used anywhere on the product's packaging.

Foods containing less than 70% organic ingredients may not use the term "organic" anywhere on the package except on the Ingredient Panel to identify specific organic ingredients.