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Do you think there is any nutritional advantage to eating organic foods to justify the higher cost?

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Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    those with autoimmune conditions often are less able to eliminate toxins than you regular mortals. It is my choice to consume foods which do not increase my toxic load. Chemical sensitivity, histamine intolerance as well as salicylate intolerance are among my personal issues. (Salicylate is produced by many plants to protect themselves from moulds and mildews many of the preparations will have similar structures) Autoimmune conditions are many and complicated. One of the UK's eminent Professors in Immunology has said my symptoms are at the edge of present scientific understanding. To see the tolerance distribution of chemicals as a bell curve, most of you will be within the deeper portion, myself and others similarly placed will be at the flatter ends making us outside the normal range. Those of you who do not have issues similar to mine are more than welcome to consume what you wish.

    It is a consequence of my auto immunity that I and others like me lack the quantity or ability to make the enzymes or to host many microbes required for normal absorption and elimination of much the populous call normal.

    I fear the international closer integration of seed and chemical companies for whom the bottom line is pure profit not the sustainability of common people to feed themselves, those in poorer communities than ours. Thankfully I live in the UK for our food choices but not for the available treatments of autoimmunity.

    I do have autoimmune diseases (two of them) and I do live in the UK... and I still think you're spouting woo. Organic foods really aren't grown with any less 'chemicals'. The only difference is that organic pesticides, fertilisers etc have been 'certified organic'. Which really means... nothing. They're still made in labs. It's not difficult to get something like that organic certified. I live in Lincolnshire where a lot of the country's home-grown food is made (including 95% of the country's brussel sprouts!) - both organic and non-organic. I know several farmers. Organic farmers are laughing all the way to the bank because they can charge more and change almost nothing.
    One of the (many) reasons I doubt the validity of what you're saying is that you said you have 'chemical sensitivity'. Uh. Everything is made of chemicals. You are made of chemicals. Water is made of chemicals. People are just scared by big words. Oh no, not dihydrogen monoxide! Except dihydrogen monoxide is just water. You are going to have to be more specific unless you want scientists to think you're sensitive to literally everything.
    I'm also confused by your sudden speech on sustainability? Organic farming is the LEAST SUSTAINABLE form of farming. You get statistically less yield for the same size growing area. If you forced people in Africa to grow organic, there'd be widespread famine. If you're really worried about sustainability, GMOs are the best solution. Not only can they be grown in harsh environments such as those found in poor areas of the world, but they use far less herbicides, pesticides, fertiliser etc. Their genes mean they are naturally immune to insects and weeds and the like. You won't get more 'organic' than that.

    Chemical sensitivity means people with it have bad reactions to "normal" chemicals that most people do not. For example, fabric softener makes me sick. When my neighbor is doing laundry, I can't be in my yard. I get headaches and brain fog.

    This has nothing to do with being afraid of big words.

    I developed chemical sensitivities after working in a building that turned out to have toxic mold which grew after water intrusion was not properly remediated.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited September 2017
    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    those with autoimmune conditions often are less able to eliminate toxins than you regular mortals. It is my choice to consume foods which do not increase my toxic load. Chemical sensitivity, histamine intolerance as well as salicylate intolerance are among my personal issues. (Salicylate is produced by many plants to protect themselves from moulds and mildews many of the preparations will have similar structures) Autoimmune conditions are many and complicated. One of the UK's eminent Professors in Immunology has said my symptoms are at the edge of present scientific understanding. To see the tolerance distribution of chemicals as a bell curve, most of you will be within the deeper portion, myself and others similarly placed will be at the flatter ends making us outside the normal range. Those of you who do not have issues similar to mine are more than welcome to consume what you wish.

    It is a consequence of my auto immunity that I and others like me lack the quantity or ability to make the enzymes or to host many microbes required for normal absorption and elimination of much the populous call normal.

    I fear the international closer integration of seed and chemical companies for whom the bottom line is pure profit not the sustainability of common people to feed themselves, those in poorer communities than ours. Thankfully I live in the UK for our food choices but not for the available treatments of autoimmunity.

    I do have autoimmune diseases (two of them) and I do live in the UK... and I still think you're spouting woo. Organic foods really aren't grown with any less 'chemicals'. The only difference is that organic pesticides, fertilisers etc have been 'certified organic'. Which really means... nothing. They're still made in labs. It's not difficult to get something like that organic certified. I live in Lincolnshire where a lot of the country's home-grown food is made (including 95% of the country's brussel sprouts!) - both organic and non-organic. I know several farmers. Organic farmers are laughing all the way to the bank because they can charge more and change almost nothing.
    One of the (many) reasons I doubt the validity of what you're saying is that you said you have 'chemical sensitivity'. Uh. Everything is made of chemicals. You are made of chemicals. Water is made of chemicals. People are just scared by big words. Oh no, not dihydrogen monoxide! Except dihydrogen monoxide is just water. You are going to have to be more specific unless you want scientists to think you're sensitive to literally everything.
    I'm also confused by your sudden speech on sustainability? Organic farming is the LEAST SUSTAINABLE form of farming. You get statistically less yield for the same size growing area. If you forced people in Africa to grow organic, there'd be widespread famine. If you're really worried about sustainability, GMOs are the best solution. Not only can they be grown in harsh environments such as those found in poor areas of the world, but they use far less herbicides, pesticides, fertiliser etc. Their genes mean they are naturally immune to insects and weeds and the like. You won't get more 'organic' than that.

    Do you believe there is no difference between the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) I have used to control cabbage worms and the organophosphate Monitor that was used to kill aphids in http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/25/magazine/playing-god-in-the-garden.html?mcubz=1 ?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    In the US the choice being local/small farm and organic are two different things. You can focus on small farm and local and get all conventional produce and you can get everything in the grocery store from far, far away and get all organic.

    I get local and in-season and small agriculture when possible (this is in part about taste, in part about supporting small farms, in part about animal treatment/knowing my farmer for meat/eggs/cheese, in part just because I enjoy it). My main sources tend to be organic farms (I think a lot of smaller farms tend to know they have a niche market where they can do better if they can appeal to those who want organic), but I don't care about that bit. I do find that local and in-season tastes different, and better (it's the only way I buy strawberries, other than frozen, tomatoes, other than canned, corn at all, quite a lot of fruit). When I buy in the grocery store, however, which is not an insignificant part of the year as I'm in Chicago (a northern climate) so local produce would often leave me with little, I don't care a whit about organic and don't think it's worth the extra cost.

    This time of year I buy from the small family farms here in MA as much as possible. Local peaches and apples are just so much better than what is available in the supermarket. My favorite, honey crisps, are in at the local fruit farm.

    Because they are small, they are not using a lot of the practices in the Michael Pollen article I linked above.
  • mlrtri
    mlrtri Posts: 425 Member
    I am not an expert and have no desire to hash anything out. I just wanted to throw out a perspective. I went to a cont Ed course a few years ago and the speaker said that our food is not the same as it was a few generations ago. She gave example of beef. Cows are meant to eat grass. They get certain nutrients from it. When they are fed on corn they are missing some of nutrients they need. When we eat beef missing those nutrients we are missing nutrients as well. Made sense to me. I recently had the opportunity to purchase a half a cow that was grass fed/finished - wow! You can taste the difference.
  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
    mlrtri wrote: »
    I am not an expert and have no desire to hash anything out. I just wanted to throw out a perspective. I went to a cont Ed course a few years ago and the speaker said that our food is not the same as it was a few generations ago. She gave example of beef. Cows are meant to eat grass. They get certain nutrients from it. When they are fed on corn they are missing some of nutrients they need. When we eat beef missing those nutrients we are missing nutrients as well. Made sense to me. I recently had the opportunity to purchase a half a cow that was grass fed/finished - wow! You can taste the difference.

    even bad cuts of grass fed beef put good cuts of grain-fed beef to shame. I buy these super lean, cheap, sirloin cuts (just had one for dinner 5 minutes ago actually) from my butcher, and they're better than the best new york strip I ever got from the grocery store. Night and day.
  • Motorsheen
    Motorsheen Posts: 20,508 Member
    dunno.....


    do they make organic Pop-Tarts ?
  • Motorsheen
    Motorsheen Posts: 20,508 Member
    jdlobb wrote: »
    mlrtri wrote: »
    I am not an expert and have no desire to hash anything out. I just wanted to throw out a perspective. I went to a cont Ed course a few years ago and the speaker said that our food is not the same as it was a few generations ago. She gave example of beef. Cows are meant to eat grass. They get certain nutrients from it. When they are fed on corn they are missing some of nutrients they need. When we eat beef missing those nutrients we are missing nutrients as well. Made sense to me. I recently had the opportunity to purchase a half a cow that was grass fed/finished - wow! You can taste the difference.

    even bad cuts of grass fed beef put good cuts of grain-fed beef to shame. I buy these super lean, cheap, sirloin cuts (just had one for dinner 5 minutes ago actually) from my butcher, and they're better than the best new york strip I ever got from the grocery store. Night and day.

    This is true.

    I believe that grass fed beef has an omega-3 lipid profile as compared to grain fed's omega 6. (3's better )

    .... or so I've been told.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    JustRobby1 wrote: »
    Or is it mainly just marketing and advertising?

    Those aren't the only options. You left out biodiversity and environmental and health advantages to farm workers as things that could, for some people, justify the higher cost.

    Except that the organic chemicals used can be far more toxic and used more times than traditional chemicals.

    I suspect that you're responding to the point about worker health, which I'd agree is a slightly specious argument.
    This is where you have to get into an appreciation of what that means. Again I'm conscious that in the UK the principal organic certification scheme has been around for 50 years, so it's very mature, but it quite clearly recognises that a broad spectrum of outcomes are significant.

    Risk to operators on application can be managed through the use of respiratory barriers, so no different from Glyphosate for example. Broad brush statements about being more, or less, toxic don't add much to the debate as there is a range of effect at different points in the supply chain.

    t's also worth thinking about where various products are impacting in the food chain. There is a lot of work going on at the moment on neoncotinoids; which appear to have a lower toxicity to birds, but a higher level of toxicity lower in their food chain. The evidence isn't conclusive, and the debate has been hampered by the low quality of early studies into the subject.
  • Macy9336
    Macy9336 Posts: 694 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    It's all marketing and advertising, but fear is the greatest salesman known to man.

    No scientific evidence behind organic/anti-GMO, but that doesn't stop those peddling this from making a fortune off of the ignorant. Fools and their money are soon parted.

    That's what they said about cigarettes.

    No - that's what "I'm not a doctor, but play one on TV" personalities said about cigarettes.

    Don't conflate science with marketing and advertising.

    Actually it's what the tobacco industry told us and the courts. Don't conflate history with dogma.

    Riiight - tobacco industry (this would be the marketing and advertising guys). Using the same basic tactics as the organic movement. No objective evidence, but making a great deal of money off of an ignorant population.

    It wasn't all marketing and advertising guys. The tobacco industry funded a whole cadre of doctors and scientific researchers specifically to fabricate scientific evidence that smoking was not bad for you. It was called the Tabbacco Industry Research Council. They also formed a trade group called the Tabasco Institute which was staffed with scientists whose job it was to attack all scientific studies that came out as anti-tabbacco. These were disbanded in 1998 but were very powerful in the seventies and eighties. A good movie to watch, for fun, is thank you for smoking which is a light hearted biography of one of the Tabasco industry lobbyists and how he lobbied for them. Including trying to bribe Marlboro Man from not switching sides and stating that he was dying of lung cancer from smoking.
  • Macy9336
    Macy9336 Posts: 694 Member
    Darn auto correct. Please read "Tabacco" for "Tabasco"
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    I think so. I also think it tastes better. Where I purchase my vegies supports local farmers, and organic produce isn't much more expensive than non-organic produce. It also lasts a lot longer....
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    Macy9336 wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    It's all marketing and advertising, but fear is the greatest salesman known to man.

    No scientific evidence behind organic/anti-GMO, but that doesn't stop those peddling this from making a fortune off of the ignorant. Fools and their money are soon parted.

    That's what they said about cigarettes.

    No - that's what "I'm not a doctor, but play one on TV" personalities said about cigarettes.

    Don't conflate science with marketing and advertising.

    Actually it's what the tobacco industry told us and the courts. Don't conflate history with dogma.

    Riiight - tobacco industry (this would be the marketing and advertising guys). Using the same basic tactics as the organic movement. No objective evidence, but making a great deal of money off of an ignorant population.

    It wasn't all marketing and advertising guys. The tobacco industry funded a whole cadre of doctors and scientific researchers specifically to fabricate scientific evidence that smoking was not bad for you. It was called the Tabbacco Industry Research Council. They also formed a trade group called the Tabasco Institute which was staffed with scientists whose job it was to attack all scientific studies that came out as anti-tabbacco. These were disbanded in 1998 but were very powerful in the seventies and eighties. A good movie to watch, for fun, is thank you for smoking which is a light hearted biography of one of the Tabasco industry lobbyists and how he lobbied for them. Including trying to bribe Marlboro Man from not switching sides and stating that he was dying of lung cancer from smoking.

    I think what CSARDiver is trying to suggest is that BigOrganics (tm) are doing the same thing around science supporting the organics market. I'm conscious that in the US the organics market is locked up in only 3-4 major suppliers, in a way that is quite different to the European market.

    As ever, some of the science is pretty flaky, on both sides of the argument. If you segment your question in an appropriate way you can prove almost anything. For example there is quite a bit of work that demonstrates that Glyphosate is unlikely to be carcinogenic when ingested. Those studies are used in some discussions to suggest that Glysophate is safe, regardless of context.
  • Macy9336
    Macy9336 Posts: 694 Member
    Macy9336 wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    It's all marketing and advertising, but fear is the greatest salesman known to man.

    No scientific evidence behind organic/anti-GMO, but that doesn't stop those peddling this from making a fortune off of the ignorant. Fools and their money are soon parted.

    That's what they said about cigarettes.

    No - that's what "I'm not a doctor, but play one on TV" personalities said about cigarettes.

    Don't conflate science with marketing and advertising.

    Actually it's what the tobacco industry told us and the courts. Don't conflate history with dogma.

    Riiight - tobacco industry (this would be the marketing and advertising guys). Using the same basic tactics as the organic movement. No objective evidence, but making a great deal of money off of an ignorant population.

    It wasn't all marketing and advertising guys. The tobacco industry funded a whole cadre of doctors and scientific researchers specifically to fabricate scientific evidence that smoking was not bad for you. It was called the Tabbacco Industry Research Council. They also formed a trade group called the Tabasco Institute which was staffed with scientists whose job it was to attack all scientific studies that came out as anti-tabbacco. These were disbanded in 1998 but were very powerful in the seventies and eighties. A good movie to watch, for fun, is thank you for smoking which is a light hearted biography of one of the Tabasco industry lobbyists and how he lobbied for them. Including trying to bribe Marlboro Man from not switching sides and stating that he was dying of lung cancer from smoking.

    I think what CSARDiver is trying to suggest is that BigOrganics (tm) are doing the same thing around science supporting the organics market. I'm conscious that in the US the organics market is locked up in only 3-4 major suppliers, in a way that is quite different to the European market.

    As ever, some of the science is pretty flaky, on both sides of the argument. If you segment your question in an appropriate way you can prove almost anything. For example there is quite a bit of work that demonstrates that Glyphosate is unlikely to be carcinogenic when ingested. Those studies are used in some discussions to suggest that Glysophate is safe, regardless of context.

    Ok, got it. I agree the science is flaky on both sides and I think that if Big Organics is engaging in this type of bad science and marketing woo similar to the tobacco industry, then why don't people see that Big GMO is also doing likewise? Big GMO has ten times the money and resources that Big Organics has. Your example of how Big GMO has overstated safety findings about glyphosate is a clear example of this.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    edited September 2017
    Motorsheen wrote: »
    jdlobb wrote: »
    mlrtri wrote: »
    I am not an expert and have no desire to hash anything out. I just wanted to throw out a perspective. I went to a cont Ed course a few years ago and the speaker said that our food is not the same as it was a few generations ago. She gave example of beef. Cows are meant to eat grass. They get certain nutrients from it. When they are fed on corn they are missing some of nutrients they need. When we eat beef missing those nutrients we are missing nutrients as well. Made sense to me. I recently had the opportunity to purchase a half a cow that was grass fed/finished - wow! You can taste the difference.

    even bad cuts of grass fed beef put good cuts of grain-fed beef to shame. I buy these super lean, cheap, sirloin cuts (just had one for dinner 5 minutes ago actually) from my butcher, and they're better than the best new york strip I ever got from the grocery store. Night and day.

    This is true.

    I believe that grass fed beef has an omega-3 lipid profile as compared to grain fed's omega 6. (3's better )

    .... or so I've been told.

    Both omega-3 and omega-6 are good fats. I assume you are basing that comment on the fact that many people eat much more 6 than 3 which, while true, has nothing to do with one being "better".

    Also, the amount of omega-3 in grass fed beef is not much. It's really only in butter that it makes much difference. The difference in grass fed vs corn finished butter is pretty significant.

    Edit: also, grass fed does not necessarily mean organic.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    edited September 2017
    Macy9336 wrote: »
    Macy9336 wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    It's all marketing and advertising, but fear is the greatest salesman known to man.

    No scientific evidence behind organic/anti-GMO, but that doesn't stop those peddling this from making a fortune off of the ignorant. Fools and their money are soon parted.

    That's what they said about cigarettes.

    No - that's what "I'm not a doctor, but play one on TV" personalities said about cigarettes.

    Don't conflate science with marketing and advertising.

    Actually it's what the tobacco industry told us and the courts. Don't conflate history with dogma.

    Riiight - tobacco industry (this would be the marketing and advertising guys). Using the same basic tactics as the organic movement. No objective evidence, but making a great deal of money off of an ignorant population.

    It wasn't all marketing and advertising guys. The tobacco industry funded a whole cadre of doctors and scientific researchers specifically to fabricate scientific evidence that smoking was not bad for you. It was called the Tabbacco Industry Research Council. They also formed a trade group called the Tabasco Institute which was staffed with scientists whose job it was to attack all scientific studies that came out as anti-tabbacco. These were disbanded in 1998 but were very powerful in the seventies and eighties. A good movie to watch, for fun, is thank you for smoking which is a light hearted biography of one of the Tabasco industry lobbyists and how he lobbied for them. Including trying to bribe Marlboro Man from not switching sides and stating that he was dying of lung cancer from smoking.

    I think what CSARDiver is trying to suggest is that BigOrganics (tm) are doing the same thing around science supporting the organics market. I'm conscious that in the US the organics market is locked up in only 3-4 major suppliers, in a way that is quite different to the European market.

    As ever, some of the science is pretty flaky, on both sides of the argument. If you segment your question in an appropriate way you can prove almost anything. For example there is quite a bit of work that demonstrates that Glyphosate is unlikely to be carcinogenic when ingested. Those studies are used in some discussions to suggest that Glysophate is safe, regardless of context.

    Ok, got it. I agree the science is flaky on both sides and I think that if Big Organics is engaging in this type of bad science and marketing woo similar to the tobacco industry, then why don't people see that Big GMO is also doing likewise? Big GMO has ten times the money and resources that Big Organics has. Your example of how Big GMO has overstated safety findings about glyphosate is a clear example of this.

    As you state this was an industry paying people to fabricate "science". I would categorize this under marketing and advertising. Classifying anything as Big "insert villainous firm here" is disingenuous and is promoting conspiracy theories. Supporting an industry because it's an underdog is not going to lead you to a good outcome.

    In all things follow the objective evidence and leave emotion out of discussion.

    I will state that I love the taste of my personally grown veges and personally harvested game, but I cannot scientifically support that one is superior over another. Nutritionally speaking these are statistically identical. There are risk/rewards to both methods. Choose yours wisely.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    I will state that I love the taste of my personally grown veges and personally harvested game, but I cannot scientifically support that one is superior over another. Nutritionally speaking these are statistically identical.

    How do you know that your personally grown veges are statistically identical? Identical to what?
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Macy9336 wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    It's all marketing and advertising, but fear is the greatest salesman known to man.

    No scientific evidence behind organic/anti-GMO, but that doesn't stop those peddling this from making a fortune off of the ignorant. Fools and their money are soon parted.

    That's what they said about cigarettes.

    No - that's what "I'm not a doctor, but play one on TV" personalities said about cigarettes.

    Don't conflate science with marketing and advertising.

    Actually it's what the tobacco industry told us and the courts. Don't conflate history with dogma.

    Riiight - tobacco industry (this would be the marketing and advertising guys). Using the same basic tactics as the organic movement. No objective evidence, but making a great deal of money off of an ignorant population.

    It wasn't all marketing and advertising guys. The tobacco industry funded a whole cadre of doctors and scientific researchers specifically to fabricate scientific evidence that smoking was not bad for you.

    Right. And today we're being told by people who have a financial interest in GMO that it's not bad for us. Perhaps it's not. But those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and a little bit of cynicism is healthy and often proven correct after the dust settles.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    I will state that I love the taste of my personally grown veges and personally harvested game, but I cannot scientifically support that one is superior over another. Nutritionally speaking these are statistically identical.

    How do you know that your personally grown veges are statistically identical? Identical to what?

    Basing this off of the results of personal testing for my home grown crop.

    As for macro scale there is no evidence showing a statistically significant nutritional difference between organic/non-organic.

  • MonkeyMel21
    MonkeyMel21 Posts: 2,396 Member
    Not to me. Idgaf. And my DH hears it so much from one of his co-workers that he ruins anything I may accidentally get that has the words "organic" "GMO", etc in it, lmao. If it tastes better/is a better product, I don't care what it says.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    I will state that I love the taste of my personally grown veges and personally harvested game, but I cannot scientifically support that one is superior over another. Nutritionally speaking these are statistically identical.

    How do you know that your personally grown veges are statistically identical? Identical to what?

    Basing this off of the results of personal testing for my home grown crop.

    Interesting. Where/how did you test it?
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    I will state that I love the taste of my personally grown veges and personally harvested game, but I cannot scientifically support that one is superior over another. Nutritionally speaking these are statistically identical.

    How do you know that your personally grown veges are statistically identical? Identical to what?

    Basing this off of the results of personal testing for my home grown crop.

    Interesting. Where/how did you test it?

    I'm a microbiologist. My wife is a molecular biologist. We both have access to full laboratories.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    I will state that I love the taste of my personally grown veges and personally harvested game, but I cannot scientifically support that one is superior over another. Nutritionally speaking these are statistically identical.

    How do you know that your personally grown veges are statistically identical? Identical to what?

    Basing this off of the results of personal testing for my home grown crop.

    Interesting. Where/how did you test it?

    I'm a microbiologist. My wife is a molecular biologist. We both have access to full laboratories.

    OIC Bummer. I'd love to have mine tested. I spend a lot of time on my soil. I'd like to know if it makes a difference other than better yields.
  • emailmehere1122
    emailmehere1122 Posts: 140 Member
    I don't know if there is a nutritional advantage to buying organic versus conventional but I buy organic. I've never followed organic or conventional farmers for a season to see the difference in their farming practices or if they're laughing all the way to the bank. I buy organic for the same reasons I recycle,think fracking is a poor practice and would like the US to join the Paris agreement. It's because I don't just focus on the here and now or just think about the fifty cents extra I spent on an apple. I don't think I'm a tree hugger or a fool that's been parted from his money but I am trying to look at the bigger picture and support things that seem to benefit our planet. If it cuts my pesticide consumption all the better
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    I don't know if there is a nutritional advantage to buying organic versus conventional but I buy organic. I've never followed organic or conventional farmers for a season to see the difference in their farming practices or if they're laughing all the way to the bank. I buy organic for the same reasons I recycle,think fracking is a poor practice and would like the US to join the Paris agreement. It's because I don't just focus on the here and now or just think about the fifty cents extra I spent on an apple. I don't think I'm a tree hugger or a fool that's been parted from his money but I am trying to look at the bigger picture and support things that seem to benefit our planet. If it cuts my pesticide consumption all the better

    Problem is, that growing organic often requires more resources for the same yield. So it's kinda the opposite of recycling. Same with non-GMO products. It's part of the reason they are priced higher.
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