Is organic food really better for you?

Question

If so, why do we not tax intensive farming and use the revenue to subsidise organic methods, therefore levelling the cost and giving everybody a free choice regardless of income....

Answer 1

Orangic fruits and veggies are fruits and veggies that have not been sprayed with pestacides. This means there is not a coat of pestacides (which are easily washed off, with soap and water), so probably bugs bite them.

Organic meats are made from animals that have not been given chemicals for 150 days before slaughtering, compared to the 90 days of "non-organic" meats.

Organic stuff is just an excuse to raise prices, even though it seems to me that it would cost less to produce them.

Answer 2

i think people buy organic because it is seen as healthier and better for the environment. i also think there's a lot of misconception that organic fruit and veg has had no chemicals used and organic meat is from animals running free and happy through fields until it was killed.

i think from an environmental point of view, it can't be a bad idea only to use a limited range of chemicals in food production and eating fewer chemicals also must be healthier.

as for taxing intensively farmed produce, i don't think this will happen as government ministers are on the boards of directors of farming companies, who would then lose profit.

i find organic products at farmers markets are the same price as normal stuff in supermarkets, because the large distribution chains and property overheads have been removed.

Answer 3

Point 1. All food is organic, organic means it's alive. A lot of today's junk 'food' is artificial and inorganic.
Point 2. All food produced on a farm according to the governing health regulations should be as good for you as 'organically grown' food. Pesticides and fertilisers are required to mass produce food, but should be safe for humans.
Point 3. New strains of crop and livestock have been produced which are quite grotesque to nature, even to the point where today such produce is genetically modified and mixed with very dangerous genes. This produce is seemingly neccesary to today's requirements of volume and quality. But many believe a different path is required to avert catastrophe. In very simple terms, most seeds are sold to farmers unable to reproduce,the farmer needs to keep buying every year. These crops have become virtually extinct in the wild, it doesn't take much to realise the danger should anything untoward happen. Some of these crops are food staples. Once you start with genetic modification the risks multiply.
Point 4. We cannot tax intensive farming, because even if we tax corporations, the cost will trickle down to farmers who barely survive as it is. At the end of the day we need them more than they need us. Someone, somewhere has to produce food. That they still do, and survive financially is our saving grace.
Point 5. 'Organic farming' like alternative energy is currently unsuitable for everyone to use, but we will hopefully find a way for some of the methods to be incorporated into the mainstream.
Point 6. The great value of 'Organic Farming' is to get clean, healthy fresh food whilst supporting the farming community and keeping the smallholder alive. Diversity benefits all.
Point 7. 'Organic' methods should also benefit the environment. HOWEVER manure run-off into streams and rivers does far more immediate damage than chemical fertiliser.

The farming problem is the same as the global warming one. We are approaching a man made catastrophe but changing will bring problems. And the solutions are not yet fully ready. Except with farming it looks like 'the people' are going to save the corporations. If the growth in 'Organics' and Farmers Markets continues at a steady sustainable rate, and we get enough of that money involved world-wide (like Bodyshop does) we might be alright.

Answer 4

I don't think it's necessarily better for you, it just doesn't have the potentially harmful chemicals that intensively grown food does. The aste is also a lot better, I grow some veg and there is nothing better than straight from th ground to the plate!Unfortunately taxing farmers wouldn't work because you would have to get the permission of Mr.Tesco et al as they control a lot of the prices so they can make a fortune.

Answer 5

What a great idea.I think some people are too set in their ways to change unfortunately.I try to use organic whenever i can, the difference is amazing.I think the prices sometimes put people off, but if more people bought organic the prices would come down.I always buy organic milk, as it has far more goodness like vitamin e in it, aswell as tasting better.

Answer 6

Food used to be organic until they add the preservatives and chemicals.

Answer 7

yes - no chemicals