Food fraud... What are you eating?

What's in your food? Do you know? I mean I know what the label says, in fact if it's a package of some non-organic something or other than it says a lot of things, but do you really know what you're eating? Do you know for sure that the package of ground beef is actually beef or that chick actually chicken, or is it some processed concoction of chicken or beef bi-products?

The fact is there is a rising problem with "food fraud" and it reaches clear across the processed food pyramid.
There are number of cases from cheese to honey to sea food... "The expensive "sheep's milk" cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow's milk. And a jar of "Sturgeon caviar" was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish... Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors said, but still market it as 100% pure at a premium price." It doesn't stop there though; "Food fraud has been documented in olive oil, fruit juice, spirits, spices, vinegar, maple syrup, and appears to pose a major problem in the seafood industry."

This is where the importance of local organic farming comes into play; it's an experience you can only get with a way of life that is deeply rooted in belief and pride rather than the all might dollar that drives the corporate machine that is our processed food industry.