Can we trust things certified organic by the US Dept of Ag anymore?

[MoonRiver]

I've been worried about this for awhile. We almost exclusively buy organic, as well as vegetarian. I want to believe that the standards are the same as before but with this deregulation/pro big business/anti-consumer regime I wonder.

[Warpy]

1. They've loosened the rules considerably

to allow supermarkets to pass things off as organic which really are not.

However, food co-ops and health food stores generally follow the trades, and those trades use extensive testing of various products to keep the whole thing honest.

The whole foods industry, in other words, is policing itself in the absence of government oversight. Color me skeptical about the organic foods section of the average suburban supermarket, though.