How To Tell The Different Between Green, All Natural And Organic Products

With the weight loss niche growing by leaps and bounds, it has brought into the network marketing community a new focus point or marketing hype in some cases for network marketing startup companies.

I want to give you a little insight into the three buzz words that are circulating.

Green, Green Living or Sustainable Living:

Wikipedia has the easiest definition to understand: Sustainable living is a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of the Earth’s natural resources and his/her own resources.

Natural, or All Natural:

Again I’ll use Wikipedia since the definition is clear: “Natural foods” and “all natural foods” are widely used terms in food labeling and marketing with a variety of definitions, some of which are vague. The term is assumed to imply foods that are minimally processed and do not contain manufactured ingredients, but the lack of standards in some jurisdictions means that the term assures nothing. In some places, the term “natural” is defined and enforced. In others, such as the United States, it has no meaning.

The USDA website states the following about “natural” standards:

“Natural. As required by USDA, meat, poultry, and egg products labeled as “natural” must be minimally processed and contain no artificial ingredients. However, the natural label does not include any standards regarding farm practices and only applies to processing of meat and egg products. There are no standards or regulations for the labeling of natural food products if they do not contain meat or eggs.”

100% Organic, Organic, Made With Organic Ingredients:

I’ll use Wikipedia again so anyone questioning this article will know I used the basic source for all three definitions. However, I’ll also go deeper here and show the USDA definitions also.

Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.

The USDA has broken the term “Organic” down into three categories.

100% Organic – To receive this USDA Certification the food must be all organic or contain only organically produced ingredients before it can receive the green & white organic seal.

Organic – The USDA regulation states at least 95% of the food must be organic before it can receive the blue organic seal

Made with Organic Ingredients – In this case the food must contain at least 70% organic ingredients. The remaining 30% of ingredients can’t include any genetically modified ingredients.

When I use the word “food” I am referring to any type of consumable product governed by the USDA.

Here is a little more on labeling from the USDA website:

“How Do I Know if My Food Is Organic?
Look at the label. If you see the USDA organic seal, the product is certified organic and has 95 percent or more organic content. For multi-ingredient products such as bread or soup, if the label claims that it is made with specified organic ingredients, you can be confident that those specific ingredients have been certified organic.

What About Other Labels?

There are other voluntary labels for livestock products, such as meat and eggs:

Free-range. This label indicates that the flock was provided shelter in a building, room, or area with unlimited access to food, fresh water, and continuous access to the outdoors during their production cycle. The outdoor area may or may not be fenced and/or covered with netting-like material. This label is regulated by the USDA.

Cage-free. This label indicates that the flock was able to freely roam a building, room, or enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water during their production cycle.

Natural. As required by USDA, meat, poultry, and egg products labeled as “natural” must be minimally processed and contain no artificial ingredients. However, the natural label does not include any standards regarding farm practices and only applies to processing of meat and egg products. There are no standards or regulations for the labeling of natural food products if they do not contain meat or eggs.

Grass-fed. Grass-fed animals receive a majority of their nutrients from grass throughout their life, while organic animals’ pasture diet may be supplemented with grain. Also USDA regulated, the grass-fed label does not limit the use of antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides. Meat products may be labeled as grass-fed organic.

Pasture-raised. Due to the number of variables involved in pasture-raised agricultural systems, the USDA has not developed a labeling policy for pasture-raised products.

Humane. Multiple labeling programs make claims that animals were treated humanely during the production cycle, but the verification of these claims varies widely. These labeling programs are not regulated.”