Yesterday I had to give a speech about organic produce, since it's been awhile I'm just going to post my full context outline.
Organic Fallacies
Introduction:
By a show of hands how many of you eat organic?
How many of you eat organic because it is more nutritious?
How many of you eat organic because it is free of pesticides?
How many of you eat organic because it is safer?
To quote Penn and Teller “Organic food has become a religion”.
People buy into the dogma of living an organic lifestyle and believe all kinds of things about organic foods that are fallacies, exaggerations and propaganda perpetuated by the organics industry.
Did you know that the e-coli contaminated spinach outbreak was traced to a California farm that was in the process of converting to organic?
Organic-philes have too many arguments in favor of eating organics to cover in a seven minute speech, in order to convince you to buy conventionally farmed produce. I will focus on three of the most common fallacies of organic produce: safety, pesticides and nutrition.
I. Beginning with safety.
A. The 2006 e-coli outbreak was tracked to Mission Organics, a farm that was converting from conventional to organic farming.
1. In order to become a certified organic farm, the farmers cannot use any synthetic pesticides, manure or herbicides for three years. To ensure that the crops raised there do not contain any trace elements from previous farming methods. This farm however leased a plot of land from an existing Angus cattle ranch.
B. E-coli bacteria were found in the water near the farm, and the cattle’s manure was also found to be contaminated with the e-coli bacteria.
1. The farmers claim that they do not know where the e-coli may have come from but considering that the adjoining cattle farm had an outbreak of e-coli it is highly likely that the newly organic farm was fertilizing their spinach with infected cow manure and the e-coli grew into the crop.
a. Had it been an e-coli outbreak in pineapples traced back to Dole it would be front page news, but since it was an organic farm the news sources the possibility that organic fertilizer had contaminated the crops, instead blaming the contamination on the possibility of feral pigs crossing through the cattle fields picking up manure, and accidentally contaminating the spinach.
b. If organic agriculture is the source of the largest contamination of produce I can think of in my lifetime, the idea that organics is safer frankly is a hard pill to swallow.
II. Let’s move on to Pesticides.
A. According to the University of Berkley website, “Until recently, nobody bothered to look at natural chemicals (such as organic pesticides), because it was assumed that they posed little risk. But when the studies were done, the results were somewhat shocking: you find that about half of the natural chemicals studied are carcinogenic as well.
B. Most organic farmers (and even some conventional farmers, too) employ mechanical and cultural tools to help control pests. These include insect traps, careful crop selection (there are a growing number of disease-resistant varieties), and biological controls (such as predator insects and beneficial microorganisms).
C. A recent study compared the effectiveness of a rotenone-pyrethrin mixture versus a synthetic pesticide, imidan. Rotenone and pyrethrin are two common organic pesticides; imidan is considered a "soft" synthetic pesticide (i.e., designed to have a brief lifetime after application, and other traits that minimize unwanted effects).
D. It was found that up to 7 applications of the rotenone- pyrethrin mixture were required to obtain the level of protection provided by 2 applications of imidan. It seems unlikely that 7 applications of rotenone and pyrethrin are really better for the environment than 2 applications of imidan, especially when rotenone is extremely toxic to fish and other aquatic life.
E. It should be noted, however, that we don't know for certain which system is more harmful. This is because we do not look at organic pesticides the same way that we look at conventional pesticides.
F. We don't know how long these organic pesticides persist in the environment, or the full extent of their effects. When you look at lists of pesticides allowed in organic agriculture, you find warnings such as, "Use with caution. The toxicological effects of [organic pesticide X] are largely unknown," or "Its persistence in the soil is unknown."
G. Again, researchers haven't bothered to study the effects of organic pesticides because it is assumed that "natural" chemicals are automatically safe. [I’m not sharing this information to scare you away from ever eating organic again] It is only meant to let you know what you are or aren't getting when you make such a purchase. Unless you know your grower personally, there is no guarantee that your produce has been grown without pesticides or other chemicals. It's a point to consider, given the substantially higher cost of organic foods.”
H. When testing for pesticides, you have to specifically test for each individual pesticide. Organic produce may have higher concentrations of organic pesticides than conventional produce contains of synthetic pesticides, unfortunately as of yet no one has bothered to test the contamination levels of organic pesticides, which is genuinely disconcerting given the fact that half of all organic pesticides are carcinogenic.
III. The Organic Industry totals more than $20 billion a year and is growing at double digit rates. Organics is Big Business. A huge section of the marketing of organic food is dedicated to the fallacy that organic food is more nutritious.
A. According to Organic Farmers and Growers some studies have shown there are benefits to eating organic food, while other studies say there is no marketable difference in the nutritional value of organically farmed produce and traditionally farmed produce.
1. In 2009 the Food Safety Administration in Britain released a report that said, “Organic food is no healthier and provides no significant nutritional benefit compared with conventionally produced foods.”
2. The report looked at fifty years of evidence published on the different nutrient levels in produce and livestock from both farming methods and also the health benefits of eating organic food.
3. The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and concluded “that there's no good evidence that consumption of organic food is beneficial to health based on the nutrient content…”
4. That while small differences in nutrient content were found between organic and conventionally produced food, they were unlikely to be of any public health relevance".
a. To quote Gill Fine the FSA director of consumer choice, "This study does not mean people should not eat organic food. What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced food and there is not evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food. If they are buying organic on the basis that it is healthier, then that is not the case.”
b. The National Academy of Science, Institute of Medicine, The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, Mayo Clinic, The American Diatetic Association, The U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Dairy Council all agree that there is no additional benefit from organic food.
IV. In conclusion to quote, Diane Barret, director of the Centre for Fruit and Vegetable Quality at the University of California at Davis, “because so many other factors affect nutrients in crops, including soil quality, climate, sunlight, rainfall, freshness, ripeness when picked and plant variety. To compare organic with conventional crops, you need to grow them under identical conditions. That is a challenge, since even small changes, such as weather and the time of picking, can make a big difference in the level of nutrients in a fruit or vegetable.”
A. There are too many factors that affect the nutritional quality of our produce. Short of dissecting and testing every piece of fruit or vegetable you eat there really is no way to determine the specific nutritional value.
B. If you are truly concerned about what goes into your food the only way to ensure how your produce is raised is to farm it yourself.
C. If you can’t raise your own crops and need to buy them, then please purchase what you want.
1. If you are concerned about pesticides, remember that organic does not mean pesticide free.
2. Organic is not healthier, safer or more nutritious.
3. Your purchases should be based on what apple is more cost effective and riper instead of whether or not it is organic.
