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Although I agree that buying everything organic is irrational there are certain products where the organic version is quite different. A good example are tomatoes where market bought often taste like plastic. This is my personal taste and opinion but i've validated it in my circle of friends.
From the author's bio: "Since April of 2016 I work part time for the non-profit, CropLife Foundation communicating the benefits of crop protection agents" To read it yourself, go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensavage , then click on "Full bio"
Great find. No bias at all... Plenty of articles say that organic is not worth it due to no nutritional value. That is not the reason I've ever heard anybody say they purchase organic fruits and veggies. It's the chemicals. I don't want to eat food that has been sprayed with chemicals over and over again to kill the various predators to that plant. I also don't want those chemicals to be in the water supply or ground…
I will say though that an underappreciated benefit of organic foods is their probiotic content. Organic fruits and vegetables contain many more species of bacteria than the those grown with pesticides. So Organic produce is actually a great underappreciated probiotic source, especially considering the diversity of probiotics is superior to any store-bought probiotic (provided you have a diet of diverse fruits and vegetables).
I'm not sure I agree with the article's conclusions as I generally favor organic in the US, but having reasonable debate is healthy. In Europe I don't bother about organic since the regulations are much stricter regarding crop treatment.
In my own vegetable garden I currently have tomatoes and many types of fruit berries, but I'm not doing the organic thing. The thing is, between organic and total overdose on pesticides, there's a wide gamut. I spead weedkiller under my blueberries so technically they aren't organic. Tomatoes will uptake many types of herbicides so I don't use any lingering ones on that part of the garden, however my fertilizer is not always organic.
Although I agree that buying everything organic is irrational there are certain products where the organic version is quite different. A good example are tomatoes where market bought often taste like plastic. This is my personal taste and opinion but i've validated it in my circle of friends.
But my local supermarket also offers a brand of organic garlic from Spain that is out of this world by comparison. I rave about it to friends. It may seem weird to be this enthusiastic about a minor ingredient, but I find the difference really so huge.
Now, the fact that this garlic was grown through organic farming techniques may be incidental to its quality; maybe it was some other factor that makes the difference. Nonetheless, I will continue buying this organic brand, because when the market only gives me these two options, I am going to prefer the better one.
From the author's bio: "Since April of 2016 I work part time for the non-profit, CropLife Foundation communicating the benefits of crop protection agents" To read it yourself, go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensavage , then click on "Full bio"
Although I agree that buying everything organic is irrational there are certain products where the organic version is quite different. A good example are tomatoes where market bought often taste like plastic. This is my personal taste and opinion but i've validated it in my circle of friends.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great find. No bias at all... Plenty of articles say that organic is not worth it due to no nutritional value. That is not the reason I've ever heard anybody say they purchase organic fruits and veggies. It's the chemicals. I don't want to eat food that has been sprayed with chemicals over and over again to kill the various predators to that plant. I also don't want those chemicals to be in the water supply or ground…
Yes, it's mainly avoiding pesticide residue that's the health benefit for organic foods. That's why it helps to know which foods have the worst residue issues (e.g. the dirty dozen), buy organic for those ones while buying normal produce for foods that don't have bad residue issues. I will say though that an underappreciated benefit of organic foods is their probiotic content. Organic fruits and vegetables contain ma…
And know the ones with the least residue as well, the 'clean fifteen.' [1]
[1] https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/news/2018-dirty-dozen-and...
> the actual pesticides used today are mostly relatively non-toxic to humans Love this! "mostly relatively" won't kill you... maybe...
- nutritional value: GE crops are the best way we have to compensate for diet diversity issues in many poor areas of the world. Golden rice is a famous example, but not the only one. There are similar stories for cassava, bananas, and many other staple foods. Banning nutrient enriched crops sentences millions of children to malnutrition and its effects.
- land and resource use: "organic" farming requires much more land, water, and energy to produce per calorie. Can you say "deforestation"? How about "pollution"?
- food safety: GE foods undergo (required) enormous safety testing before they reach market. Testing that would fail and block many "frankenfoods" created by "organic" cross breeding, such as kiwi. What's more, "organic" blocks the possibility of creating hypoallergenic peanuts, wheat, shellfish, etc etc .
- organic foods require more, and more damaging, and more lasting, pesticides than their GE sisters.
- I don't like radiation in my food. The "organic" method of cross breeding involves radiospermatogenesis. That's where you bombard seeds with x-rays to promote mutation. That's genetic engineering, but randomized. - "organic" cross breeding selects crops based on phenotype (how they look). This causes problems, like the famous extra large bananas in the 30s, which were extremely popular until it was discovered that they also produced an extra large dose of cyanide. They poisoned people who ate too many.
There are lots of reasons to reject the naturist fallacy vision of "organic" food as better. These are some of my favorites. I don't want my money to support mass starvation, illness, and food insecurity.
From the author's bio: "Since April of 2016 I work part time for the non-profit, CropLife Foundation communicating the benefits of crop protection agents" To read it yourself, go to https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensavage , then click on "Full bio"
Great find. No bias at all... Plenty of articles say that organic is not worth it due to no nutritional value. That is not the reason I've ever heard anybody say they purchase organic fruits and veggies. It's the chemicals. I don't want to eat food that has been sprayed with chemicals over and over again to kill the various predators to that plant. I also don't want those chemicals to be in the water supply or ground…
I've had more than one person tell me that organic foods taste better & they have higher nutritional value.
Related but talking to those people about the all natural label is just a lost cause.