The organic movement in the UAE is strong

Gulf News

Gulf News takes closer look into the organic movement in the UAE. The organic food industry continues to grow in the UAE as more and more people become aware of the benefits of eating organic. The availability of imported organic produce is also growing in the UAE and what is important to note here is that international accreditation practices vary, a phenomenon that not many consumers are aware of. Gulf News spoke to experts for a glimpse into the different certifying bodies for organic products,  the health benefits this industry can trigger and what consumers  should pay attention to before purchasing any organic product. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00There's a growing number of people who are making the switch to organic food, but what

00:11is organic and is it healthier?

00:14Organic food is, it's a range of whether it's fresh or ambient products that are certified

00:19organic so it means that from the growing process, whether that's an animal or a carrot,

00:24everything within that process has been certified organic.

00:28Organic food is a way of life, it is the way we should be eating, it's the way food was

00:34grown originally before we added all the shortcuts to produce food the way we want it to be produced

00:40not the way it should be grown.

00:41So if you have organic food you will have less additive, less coloring, less chemicals,

00:51added chemicals let's say, to your body and that's why organic food, yes it's much better

00:58to health in general.

01:00Organic basically means that you grow as close to nature as possible and the produce that

01:05you grow absorbs natural nutrients that you would find in the wild.

01:10These nutrients are absorbed by the roots of the plants and go directly into the crop.

01:16So if you want genuine produce that is full of nutrients you have to go and buy them from

01:23a farm that grows slowly and from natural nutrients that are produced by animal manures

01:30that are turned into compost and crop left over.

01:33So there's a lot of labor involved into creating the right atmosphere in which you can grow

01:39genuine organic produce.

01:41We have set up a business that grows their own vegetable on our very own farm which is

01:45located in Jaja just off the Kalba road and we harvest freshly all our products each morning

01:52and sell them in our own shop to individual clients and to other businesses.

01:57I met a very good engineer who is now my business partner along the way and together we developed

02:02techniques and growing methods to adjust knowledge that we both had to the desert location and

02:11you have to completely rethink everything that you know because it's a completely different

02:16setting.

02:17So you have to create soil, you have to create your own seeds in a way.

02:22So we grow heirloom produce, we collect our own seeds, we adjust them slowly to the local

02:28growing conditions which is a very important part of our work.

02:32We choose the types of vegetables that we grow very carefully.

02:36So for instance to grow beetroot in the desert is very difficult.

02:40So we tried more than 20 different types of beetroot to find the varieties that do really

02:45well here.

02:46The organic industry has certain musts that have to be met before a product can carry

02:49an organic label.

02:50However, there is a wide range of organic labels and their practices vary from standard

02:55to standard.

02:56You could have for example the US under one standard.

03:00So that's when the US came up with their standard, USDA.

03:02The Europeans collectively came up with the EU standard.

03:05So what happened there was you had many different standards.

03:09Now to get it all under one hat you generally tend to have to go for the lowest common denominator.

03:14So obviously you don't want to have some things that are not acceptable so you knock

03:17those out.

03:18But you end up having the original standards which were quite high and then some other

03:22ones which were a little bit lower and then you tend to have the common standard which

03:27tends to be a step below because it has to cover such a big range of countries or states

03:35or producers.

03:36It doesn't necessarily mean that it won't have been given some form of pesticides or

03:42otherwise.

03:43They would all be allowed under the certification body and each country has their own certification

03:48body.

03:49So whether the soil association in the UK or the FDA in the US and of course locally

03:55there's also a certification body here.

03:57If I wanted to I could put berries farmed in 12 hours flight from here, fertilized by

04:08fish meal which is a limited resource, sprayed with sulfur and copper oxide chloride, picked

04:14by immigrant workers, packed in plastic punnets, flown halfway around the world, grown purely

04:20for money and I would get the organic standard.

04:24If you're using that as your insurance to something that is a very healthy product or

04:28a more naturally grown product because obviously within organic you'll also get whether it's

04:33chocolates or cereals, it just means that the ingredients are organic, it doesn't mean

04:40that you're going to lose weight on them so that's one thing that people have to remember

04:43just because it's organic doesn't necessarily mean it's diet.

04:47It has the same amount of sugar, it has the same amount of carbs so read whatever you

04:53want to buy because at the end organic food can lead to obesity if you didn't know how

04:58much you're having.

04:59When I shop I always try to read the label as much as I can, yes absolutely, and obviously

05:03also looking at the origin of the countries as well, that also impacts on my choice.

05:08I feel that I'll pay too much money for, maybe I'm wrong, but for nothing.

05:13Would you buy organic if it was the same price?

05:17Yeah, sure, if the same price, sure.

05:19I mean I try to buy as much organic like fruit and produce as I can just because you keep

05:27reading things about the chemicals and I have an autoimmune disease and how everything

05:32affects your body so I try within limits if it's not too expensive.

05:38It costs more to grow it and therefore it's a much slower process, if you can imagine

05:44if you're growing organically, the land itself must be organic so when they start there's

05:48a huge investment, it's transition so you may have up to two to five years to change

05:54a conventional farm over to organic.

05:56It also tastes better, at the end of the day it's down to a more natural product, if there's

06:02less put into the product then obviously it's natural goodness shines through so it's worth

06:07the money.

06:08It's healthier than the conventional, definitely, by miles.

06:12You haven't had the agrochemicals and you haven't had the processing chemicals so with

06:15those chemicals gone, of course it's a lot healthier.

06:18Then you've got the flip side of it and then say, okay but what about the actual nutrition

06:21that's in it, not what's added.

06:23So the nutrition that's in it, then I would pick Demeter every day.

06:26So Demeter then we're talking in harmony with nature, with great soil, with compost, there

06:32you're getting premium quality and high amounts of nutrition, so high nutrition density.

06:37So if you go for the minimum organic standard you take out the bad, if you go for the highest

06:42organic standard you've taken out the bad and you're adding the good.

06:45Although organic food is healthier, the message from the experts is consumers should still

06:49read the labels and really look into where their food is coming from.

06:53I'm Sara Vigarampaya, Golf News.

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