Lately, I have been seeing some familiar words used in somewhat new ways. My old dictionaries are not very helpful. Can you clue me into the current usages? The words are: organic, artisan and self-sustaining.

Check with Sharon Thompson’s blog today to see what she has to say about the safety of Kentucky produced food.

Organic is used to describe everything from beets to boots. For food labeling, the United States Dept. of Agriculture has a certification program called the National Organic Program. The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, part of the 1990 Farm Bill, was intended to establish standards governing agriculture products and production to assure consumers of consistency in the meaning of organic. The process for acquiring the organic label is detailed in this act. According to the act, organic food must be “produced and handled without the use of synthetic chemicals.” The USDA program also regulates some textiles which can be labeled organic, depending on the content of the fiber.

The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines self-sustaining as “maintaining or able to maintain oneself or itself by independent effort.” The USDA has quite a lot of information about sustainable agriculture. As it pertains to agriculture, sustainable describes farming systems that are “capable of maintaining their productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely. Such systems… must be resource-conserving, socially supportive, commercially competitive, and environmentally sound.” [John Ikerd, as quoted by Richard Duesterhaus in "Sustainability’s Promise," Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (Jan.-Feb. 1990) 45(1): p.4. NAL Call # 56.8 J822] The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture sponsored a conference last March, “Land, Food & Culture: Creating Sustainability Where You Live.”

Sustainable agriculture was also addressed in the 1990 Farm Bill. Under that law, “the term sustainable agriculture means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:

• satisfy human food and fiber needs;
• enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends;
• make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls;
• sustain the economic viability of farm operations; and
• enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.”

Artisan foods, often cheese or bread, are typically produced in small facilities from materials grown in the region often using locally developed recipes. According to the Marin (California) Independent Journal, “Another growing trend is to make the cheese with certified organic milk. Artisan cheesemakers not only come up with the recipes for their cheeses, they also oversee every aspect of production. Some, such as the Giacomini family of Point Reyes and the Straus family of Marshall, can call their creations single herd cheeses because they know every cow that produces the milk that goes into the cheeses.” The U.S. Slow Food movement and Kentucky Slow Food is supportive of artisan food products.

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