To the 9

When discussing the benefits of organic produce, I've often been asked for the best way to identify whether or not produce has been classified as officially organic. There is actually a very easy way to figure it out, which apparently is not common knowledge as was brought to my attention by a friend last night.
Many products have whats called a PLU sticker attached to them (PLU = Price Look Up), which I'm sure many of you have seen. This is the annoying little white sticker that is on individual pieces of fruit/veggies, or on produce that is marked by its weight in containers (blueberries, herbs, etc.). An easy way to figure out if your produce is actually organic, based on the standards of the USDA National Organic Program, look for a "9" in front of a 4-digit code. For example, if a regular apple code is 3101, an organic apple will be 94101. On the contrary, any foods which have been genetically modified (usually abbreviated GM) will have an "8" in front of the code.

Points to consider:
- The purpose of the PLU code is not to inform consumers, but to facilitate grocery transactions between organizations and at the checkout counter. Regardless, anything labeled as organic must comply with the National Organic Program standards.
- There are NO labeling requirements for Genetically Modified (GM) foods as of now, so this is really the only way (to my knowledge)that we as consumers have to differentiate between the two. That being said, don't panic too much -- genetic modification is mostly limited to corn and soybeans, and hasn't yet infiltrated individually-sold produce such as tomatoes, apples, etc. Lucky us!