Thursday, July 30, 2009

Organic Food No Healthier...

What a load of *$!@*! Someone shared THIS article with me and I froze.

What angers me about this article is that it is written by somebody who obviously has a problem with organics (who could this possibly be, except a giant corporation that shall remain unnamed, trying to patent, genetically modify and control our food system?) in the first place.

Excuse me for being naive, but aren't there a million OTHER reasons we are eating organically? I almost have the nerve to say (okay, I have the nerve) that if for some very strange reason organic food was LESS healthy, I would still support the organic industry. Why?

Health is certainly a very good reason to eat organically, but how about the ethics of treating our environment with integrity so that we can continue to have a symbiotic relationship with the earth? I'm not a tree-hugging hippie (okay, I hugged a tree once, but it was the most beautiful Redwood Tree I've ever seen in my life) but I am concerned about farming being done RIGHT and with integrity. We only get so much land.

The reason "they" started using pesticides in the first place was to amp up production, which equals amping up sales. I'm pretty sure nobody was thinking about our health. I'm also sure that long-term studies were NOT done on the chemicals long before they were used.

How about cleaner air, water and soil? How about not fudging chemically with our plants so we don't scare off the bees? (Whoops, might be too late on this one. Bees are now shipped to farms...)

I'm not sure how anyone can claim at this point that eating organically is no healthier, especially just using common sense. Organic produce frees me from being exposed to harsh chemicals. What if the chemicals don't harm us? The point is that I don't want to be exposed to chemicals in the first place....not on my FOOD! (My great grandfather, a mighty farmer, would sit up in his grave if he knew what was going on).

Check out this "Why Buy Organic" article to read more reasons to choose organic produce over conventional.

I'm aware that organic food costs more, but actually, food SHOULD cost this much. Cheap food is typically unhealthy food. Again, to refer to Food, Inc., someone complained that organic eggs were "$3.00!!" and yet they were drinking a 75 cent soda.

Is anyone else outraged by this article? It's basically going to help people justify buying conventional food because they may be inclined to miss the entire point of organics. It's not JUST about human health, it's about the health of our land, air and water.

Don't forget integrity.

3 comments:

Hanlie said...

Paula Crossfield wrote a wonderful article about this in the Huffington Post today - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-crossfield/organic-versus-convention_b_247801.html

It's a very poorly conducted "study" and to me the fact that it got all the headlines is very telling.

David said...

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say "written by somebody who obviously has a problem with organics". I doubt it is. What I got from news and blog sources (http://www.foodpolitics.com/2009/07/todays-huge-flap-about-organics/) is that the article had a very narrow focus of nutrients in food. If organics was only about nutrients in food the outlandish news headlines would probably be right. But as usual the news likes to blow things out of proportion. So, from what I've read is that the report is probably right on based upon current research, there is no significant difference in nutrient levels in conventional vs. organic food that has been discovered as of yet (as always more research is needed). But as you and Marion Nestle point out, and as I believe, organic/ sustainable is more than just about nutrients.

Danielle said...

Ahaha! That is my kind of example! Twelve cans of soda for $4.98, or twelve organic eggs for $3???!!!!

Yeah, I just read some trash on the Yahoo news posting stuff... where they pull from various sources (mostly opinion blogs that they don't explain are OPINION), and make it "news". Anyway, it was going on and on about the falsehoods of the organic myth... I wanted to stab out my eyes. If a cherry is a cherry is a cherry- how about we just talk about how much better a tree ripened organic local grower's cherry tastes- than an unripe mass produced import!? If nothing else I will buy the organic foods I can because they are tasty-er PERIOD.