Pros and cons of organic vs nonorganic?

[CrazyTalk]

Organically grown food has more natural vitamins and minerals which are easier for our body to digest.

This 'fact', is again simply not true. There have actually been a ton of studies on this, and organically grown foods have absolutely no difference to conventionally grown ones as far as nutritional profile goes.

Here's a post from the Harvard health blog : http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/...s-than-conventionally-grown-food-201209055264 - there are links to a couple of studies.


Also, it has been shown that because of the increased COST of organic vegetables and fruit, people who eat ONLY organic tend to buy less fruits and vegetables, leading to decreased health.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Enjoy your dinner doused in roundup. I shall continue to support other small farmers like myself who are endeavoring to bring back small, diverse, sustainable farms and chemical free food.

I'd rather have my food dosed in roundup (glysophate) than have it dosed in rotenone, which is drastically more toxic,crosses the blood-brain barrier, causes parkinson's disease in mice, and is perfectly organic.


We should be making decisions based on what is safe, not what is natural.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'd prefer my food to be food and not dosed in anything.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Then "organic" isn't what you want to be buying.

Organic farmers use way more pesticides than conventional farmers - their pesticides are just "natural" - made in factories from ground up roots/insects/whatever - and in many cases, more toxic than the conventional equivalent.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't want to be buying anything but producing my own organic and I haven't applied anything to my gardens in many years.

So, I have to say that I find a lot of your last statement to be incorrect. If I don't have to apply anything why would all other organic growers be dumping poisons on their crops?

I'd be really interested in what weird things you've been reading and the authors' agenda.

Pun intended but "Organic farmers use way more pesticides than conventional farmers - , more toxic than the conventional equivalent." - sounds like CrazyTalk and just not true.
Do you even know what it takes to be certified organic?

 

[CrazyTalk]

Simply put, because you can put up with the occasional blemished fruit, and a commercial farm can't. Organic farms use more pesticides than conventional farms, the pesticides they use are just from a specific list - things like rotenone, neem, etc.


Here's an article from scientificamerican about pesticide use on organic farms:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/



And yes, I am intimately familiar with what it takes to get certified - the tracking, the logging of use, etc. You absolutely can use pesticides on an organic farm, and some REALLY NASTY, they just can't be synthetically derived (which means nothing in terms of safety)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I work my own 1 acre garden as well as help out at a 100+ acre organic community garden. No pesticides used here. Just sayin'.

 

[CrazyTalk]

I work my own 1 acre garden as well as help out at a 100+ acre organic community garden. No pesticides used here. Just sayin'.

You don't spray anything on your plants? No insecticidal soap? No neem? Thats pretty much impossible where I live.


Are either one of those commercial farms? Because we're talking about what is allowed in organic farming, and rotenone is, for instance, not only allowed, but commonly used by large scale organic farms, and research shows that it probably causes parkinsons disease:

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/23/34/10756.full.pdf

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Nothing. Proactive use of floating row cover and carefully picking off egg, beetles and caterpillars goes a long way.

The organic farm is semi commercial, selling produce at local farmers' markets. They do have a lot of labor available.

What you're describing doesn't fit my definition of organic.

ETA
I lived in Costa Rica and there were farms that used nothing either. Not necessarily true in the lowland plantations on the coasts where the pineapples and bananas are.
Creative ways of keeping the bugs at bay made it unnecessary.
That's where I became familiar with floating row cover.

 

[CrazyTalk]

What you're describing doesn't fit my definition of organic.

The USDA is who gets to decide what goes for Organic. It's a legally defined term in this country. What you feel is or isn't organic isn't really relevant.