Nature's Market - Fruit

Fresh fruit is often suspiciously beautiful and smooth. It is not only that the ugly fruit has been sorted away; lots of fruit has been sprayed and washed with insecticides to make it look better. Organic fruit, on the other hand, is not washed with insecticides. No drugs or preventive chemicals have been used and only an organic fertiliser has been provided. Additionally, the environmental impact of such production is reduced significantly and much more positive in all aspects. Still, only when the product is certified by a recognized certifier can the consumer trust that the product is wholly organic.Within the European Commission (EC) there is a directive that specifies what constitutes organic foods. It is not allowed to promote and put on the market goods as organic unless they fulfil the strong requirements of the said directive. The certifier, ‘Tún’, in Iceland, is a member of ‘IFOAM’, an international organisation that certifies organic foods.

The difference between organic and ecological cultivation of fruit is that the use of synthetic fertilizer is not allowed nor the use of traditional chemicals in organic cultivation, while ecological cultivation is really ordinary farming where the use of some chemicals and synthetic fertilizer is allowed, although in modest amounts. Ecological farming is quality controlled, ordinary farming and the quality control is in the hands of federations of farmers and farmers unions, people who may not have the best interests of the consumer at heart.