From an environmental point of view, yes, organic food is the way to go. It's true, pesticides and fertilisers pollute. But what annoys me to no end, is when people think they are making a "healthy" choice by ONLY eating organic food.
ONLY: People who think their organic food claim constitutes some kind of superiority over all of us conventionally-farmed-food-consuming-subordinates, usually also say they ONLY eat organic food. Fair enough, if it's true, but to me, most of the time, this sounds like pure snobbery. That sense of exclusitivity "Only X is good enough for me" makes it a little obvious that they are using organic food as a way to prove they are somehow better, the enlightened consumer.
They claim they do it because it's healthy, and eating food treated with pesticides and fertilisers is dangerous. Well, in fact, there is ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF that organic food is healthier. Also, have any of these people ever heard of government guidelines? At least in the EU we can be 100% sure that nothing sold in the fruit & veg section of the supermarket is so "poisoned" that it can actually cause disease. Do they seriously think that nobody thought about the dangers of pesticides but them?
DDT is GONE! Dead and gone. Stop driving yourselves crazy.
This is the test they use to see whether the chemicals they use are harmful: They find a dose that's completely safe for rats, and then divide that by 100.
I'm sorry, but I trust that.
And think about this: If farming chemicals really were so dangerous, the people who'd be affected most would be the farmers, right? Well, there have been studies done on that and nope, no results. NEGATIVE.
Besides, plants make their own pesticides too! Caffeine is a pesticide, for example. I quote:
"Even the freshest organic apples – as well as other plant foods – contain natural compounds which, when extracted and given to rats in high doses, cause tumours. Toxicologist Bruce Ames of the University of California became famous in the 1970s for sounding the alarm on the cancer-causing (or carcinogenic) potential of man-made chemicals.
But after testing 'natural' pesticides in rats, he called off the warning. A paper he published in 1990 said it all. Entitled, "Dietary Pesticides (99.99 per cent All Natural)", it reported that in a regular diet, people consume about 10,000 times more natural carcinogens than synthetic ones. According to Ames, a single cup of coffee contains more natural carcinogens than a year's worth of the pesticide residues eaten on fruit and vegetables."
And the cherry on top is, that the fertilisers organic farmers use are in no way harmless either! They use sulphur, copper, BT spray, pyethrins, spinosad. Aha, sulphur irritates the lungs, and rotenone has been proven to cause Parkinsons disease in rats. Harmless eh?And of course toxic moulds are the most powerful carcinogens in existence. How safe are we from them without fungicides?
Natural is better... pfft... better is better.
I quote again:
"And as a flurry of papers cited in Faidon Magkos's review will attest, organic food has been subject to its own food scares. There have been bacterial outbreaks which have been blamed on the fact that organic production involves manure but not antibacterial techniques such as food irradiation or chemical washes. Another concern is the growth of moulds such as aflatoxin B1, commonly found on mouldy peanuts and one of the most carcinogenic compounds known to exist. Among the most notorious recent toxic mould scares was one linked to organic apple juice, where levels of the toxin patulin were 10 times greater than those found in regular apple juice. Levels of the mould toxin deoxynivalenol have also been reported to be higher in organic wheat. Because organics are not treated with fungicides, there is a higher risk of these toxins creeping in."
Let's get to the point, in my opinion, the whole organic food hype is just another way for the upper classes to elevate themselves.
Organic food is expensive, exclusive.... "special". I can't afford it, and I would say I'm quite "well off". It's simple, in every product we buy, there is a class system. You can buy a toothbrush for 89 cents, you can buy a toothbrush for 10€. But before the whole organic thing, this class system was hardly present in fruit. How much would that piss you off if you were rich? You have a better car, a better house, better clothes, fancier appliances, fancier phone, but you still have to eat the same fruit that the "scum of society" eats, the minions, your subjects.
So then, the whole organic food thing starts and finally you can say "I pay more for my fruit and vegetables because they're healthier" Obviously the health thing is a farse, really what they're saying is: "I pay more for my fruit and vegetables, because I can (muhahahahha)"
The fact is, if the whole world where to adopt organic farming, if any other kind of farming were outlawed 1. More forests would have to be cleared for organic manure 2. We would all fucking starve to death 3. How much easier would it be for pests or fungi to wipe out an entire crop?
Pesticides and fungicides were invented for a reason, or not? Anyone heard of the potato famine?
"Historically, most food-related diseases are due to bacterial and fungal contamination, so in terms of health consciousness, focussing on pesticides is probably barking up the wrong tree."
So basically, whenever one of you snobby ass hardcore organic food advocates comes out with one of your "I only eat organic" statements, prepare for a whipping.
Seriously, you'd think someone as left as me would be totally pro organic farming. And I AM, I'm only anti the people who a. Support it for wholly the wrong reasons b. Think it would be sustainable worldwide.
And of course the people who claim they can "taste the difference" seriously, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. And I went to private school.
I care about what food I buy. I don't eat red meat for one thing and try not to go overboard with the wheat products. That is because of their carbon footprint. I try to decrease my carbon footprint in many, many ways. Organic food however (except organic meat, which I will pay more for is available) is not an option for me. Too expensive, and seriously, does anyone ever look at the quality of the tiny, bruised organic produce? The runts of the produce isle. Why? No genetic engineering? Well if I heard food has not been genetically modified, I seriously wonder whether i'm getting value for my money. I WANT science to have gone into my food.
If I were a farmer, I would farm using organic methods, but I am a consumer and when I consider the value of the food I buy, organic food consistently is of inferior value. Plus, I'm not rich. I CAN'T spend 10-40% more on food. I simply can't. To those of you who can, knock yourselves out, but don't you dare adopt that holier+healthier (WEALTHIER) than thou attitude and start preaching to everyone else about it. It's a choice! If you are so deluded that you think you can "taste the difference" then seriously, there is no use talking to you about it.
I hate the rich. I hate the idea of "lifestyle". It aggravates me to no end.
(And I mean VALUE not price not quality, VALUE)
Sources: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/print/1567/organic-food-exposed?page=0%2C4
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