Weeze

I find Sprouts carries a lot of the same stuff as wholefoods, only cheaper. Check out if you have one nearby.

Hiro11

This really isn't that hard, you don't need to go to Whole Foods or a speciality store. All major supermarkets in my area (Chicago) carry hormone free dairy and it's clearly labled as such. Even major brands typically offer a hormone free version these days:
Are Your Dairy Products Hormone Free? (30+ Dairy Brands That Are)

In general, less processed foods are mainstream in the US these days. When even unmitigated crap like Trix cereal is going naturally flavored, artificial color-free and has cut sugar by 60%+ you know we're in a different world. I go to SLC monthly for work, theres plenty of good food available there. I think the OP will be fine.

RoadWarriorFromLP

It would seem that you don't:

US-EU Organic Equivalency Arrangement - United States Mission to the European UnionUnited States Mission to the European Union

Trader Joe's has a decent organic selection.

Pulaski

"Recognizing the program as being equivalent" is not the same as having the same strict rules as the UK. Agricultural produce rules are a murky mess in the US and the standards for what can be sold as organic in the US do not appear to be as restrictive as the rules in the UK 15+ years ago. ...... Or have the rules in the UK been relaxed? I doubt it.

RoadWarriorFromLP

I've briefly consulted my friends at Google, and I'm not seeing much support for the contention that the standards are so vastly different that one should worry about the US version. Feel free to demonstrate why this is not the case.

Anian

Not sure about Idaho, but all of the large grocery stores in Washington State have an organic section that includes organic milk and eggs, labelled if they are hormone free. No need for the really expensive places like Whole Foods. Organic eggs are the only way for me to buy free-range without going to a farm. Things like ice cream and cheese are far more limited, so even if they are carried they might not be in stock every time you shop.

Rielle

That may be true for the EU, however in the UK we have the British Soil Association which is an additional body which approves Organic products; for example the EU allows GM crop fed meat as Organic, however the British Soil Association does not.

RoadWarriorFromLP

So it seems that you're not really looking for something that complies with UK regulations, but with the standards of one particular group that has its own guidelines that also don't match UK regulations.

Perhaps you start by learning the US regulations instead of making presumptions about them. For example:

USDA Blog » Organic 101: Can GMOs Be Used in Organic Products?

If you want to avoid corn syrup, then read the labels. Since many of the major brands do use it in a variety of processed foods (including food that is not particularly sweet), you'll probably want to avoid many of the major brand items in the large supermarket chains.

The dairy growth hormones can be avoided more easily. The labels are pretty clear:

Center for Food Safety | Issues | rbGH | Guide to rbGH-Free Dairy Products

Rielle

You hit the nail on the head! Thank-you. This is super helpful.

Rielle

Not at all, the UK Organic regulatory body is the Soil Association. We are first restricted by EU Organic regulations and then the Soil Association.

You seem to be quite defensive? So I'll clarify.

The difference between something being '100% Organic' and just Marketed as 'Organic' whilst being 75% or 95% Organic is also the difference between me having a seizure and developing further Neurological issues over time.

As AdobePinon noted there is a huge difference between labelling regulations in the UK and US, and as I understand they vary from state to state.

Rielle

This thread has been far more controversial than it needed to be for some users *cough cough*!

But thanks for all the great advice, really appreciated.

RoadWarriorFromLP

What I'm noting is that you are presuming that US regulations are going to somehow lead to your untimely demise, when it's apparent that you don't know what those regulations are. If this is really that important to you, then begin by learning about the regulations -- I've gotten you started by providing a link that dispelled one of your mistaken ideas.

For example, you've noted your concerns about meat produced from GMO crops. Well, as it turns out, the USDA does not allow such things to be labeled as organic, so that isn't a problem as you anticipated.

In the US, organic designations now come from the USDA (which was the source of one of those links), which is a federal agency. It's not really a state matter.

AdobePinon

I don't know anything about labeling in the UK, but as far as the U.S. goes, RoadWarrior is correct in that GMOs are banned from all three levels of USDA Organic labeling.

At the end of the day, only you know how serious a threat to your health you face. So, do your research for the ingredients that concern you, but don't believe every blog site you read. On the other hand, a number of entities certify products as organic on behalf of the USDA - are they all equally trustworthy, do they all perform adequate testing and enforcement, what loopholes are available, etc? Continuity of knowledge is a subject I've worked on in other fields, and it can be extremely challenging. I haven't really researched the answers because the potential acute consequences to me are not that serious. You obviously feel differently.

Steerpike

You'll find that most threads turn out this way. It is what passes for entertainment in these parts ...

As for GMOs ... for a lark, I recently tried to find 'with GMO' milk in the local Safeway (decidedly not high-end / trendy) and could not. Even the boring store-brand, which was (obviously) not organic, still had the statement about coming from cows not treated with growth hormones.

I was recently visited by a good friend from UK, who is passionate about organic food and related matters. At first, he was skeptical about the food situation, due to the relative lack of regulations against things like GMO in the US (from what he told me, GMOs are outright banned in UK). But after 3 weeks, he was very positive about what he saw in the US. His conclusion was that, while there were fewer regulations, the demand for organics was high and the quality/quantity of organic food available was high. I took him to Sprouts, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Safeway and a myriad of local high-end grocery stores in both Scottsdale, AZ, and the SF Bay Area. He was clearly shocked at the volume of organics available in general, and blown away by the meat section at Whole Foods, which practically tell you what the cow had for breakfast that day.

He didn't comment at all on pricing, so I have no idea if he found the local organics to be more or less expensive.

We were in generally affluent / educated areas; the picture may have been quite different 'across the railroad tracks'.

Chipotle (fast food outlet) advertise their avoidance of hormones, and Costco have announced they are phasing out antibiotic-raised chickens and other meats. I think things are changing in your favor.

ETA - better article about Chipotle and the food industry in general ....

RoadWarriorFromLP

In this case, this is more about the OP's confusion.

If this is supposed to be a thread about practicalities, then it's not really relevant how the US' regulations compare to those in the UK or on Mars or whatever. The issue is one of how she can get the things that she wants while avoiding what she doesn't want, but she seems to be more interested in presuming that American laws will kill her than in knowing what those rules actually are or where the food is.

As has been noted here, avoiding corn syrup really is difficult here, so that is something that will require some effort. The milk doesn't seem to be an issue, and as noted, there is no need to worry about food with GMOs being labeled as organic.