Organic Fruit

When we consider dry fruit that is organic, it adds a special dimension.  Only at the beginning of the twentieth century did this become much of an issue. As the twentieth century unfolded increasing numbers and volumes of chemical were used in the growing of fruit. Although it had been the convention for millennia not to use chemicals, the use of chemicals came to be known as conventional.  It was only in the 1940’s when chemical use was becoming prominent that the term organic gardening began to take hold.

In what is known as organic farming significantly restricts the use of herbicides, pesticides and insecticides.  There are other issues such as genetic modification and use of nano technology, but those will not be addressed in this article.  A challenge is that there are not many government inspectors to check on organic approaches to farming and gardening, and in many countries there is no check at all on the label that is being added to the fruit.
As opposed to being organic in your private gardening which is not regulated, the commercial organic gardening is heavily regulated to ensure the integrity of the representations.  Organic fruit has its own special niche and industry and specialized approaches to growing fruit of various sorts. Until the 1990’s most organic fruit was produced in small family operations.  However, this farming has been growing at many times the rate of other farming.  So that is changing as larger commercial growers are beginning to enter into this market.

A significant trade off for organic fruit is that they yield of fruit is significantly lower than conventional approaches. If the matter were simply price people could simply select the pricier fruit, but there is a bigger picture. There is significant criticism, that on a global scale where food production is not sufficient to feed the growing world population that we cannot afford the luxury of organic fruits and vegetables.

On the positive side, numerous studies indicate that organic fruit is higher in vitamins and antioxidants than fruits grown through conventional means. So if you pay a higher price for organically grown fruit you are paying not just for higher costs of production, but also higher quality and nutrition.