I have two main issues with this recent organic food movement. One is the fact that very little scientific evidence has surfaced demonstrating any health benefits of eating organic food. Second is my dislike at Whole Foods or other organic supermarkets for their refusal to buy genetically engineered foods. I am not quite sure what the driving force behind the refusal of genetically engineered (GE) produce are other then peoples’ irrational fears that it is some how unhealthy for human consumption or for the environment in general.

The plain and simply truth behind GE foods is that as of now it is the only practical solution we have for combating world hunger. With a rapidly growing world population and climate change we will soon be faced with massive worldwide food shortages. Larger produce using less land, pesticides taken from animal DNA, and less resources used overall are just a couple of the benefits found from GE foods. Ever hear of Norman Borlaug? Most people have not, which is sad, because Norman Borlaug has saved over a billion lives through the development of GE technologies in agricultural crops. With his research he was able to quadruple the output of crops saving millions upon millions of lives. Do you think the people living in Mexico, India, and Africa who are able now to sustain their families thanks to Norman would appreciate us overfed Americans boycotting his progress. I doubt it. Norman Borlaug is, in my book, the greatest humanitarian to ever walk the face of the Earth.

That is why it truly saddens me that organizations like Green Peace and PETA try to undermine his work and our potential to stop world hunger. What pisses me off even more is that these bastards are not content to just refuse to buy the products themselves but feel the need to spread their bullshit propaganda on unsuspecting consumers. In fact if you walk into any Whole Foods you can find pamphlets with unsupported outrageous claims about the dangers of GE foods. It’s a shame that scientists don’t have the same time and resources to go around showing the actual evidence you know with them being to busy actually making a positive change in the world.

So with that said let me get back on track and break down the three main arguments made for choosing organic foods; it supports local farmers, it is healthier to eat, and it better for the environment. If you think that by buying organic products that have unfamiliar labels complete with pictures of quaint little farms that you are sticking it to the man well you are strongly mistaken. There was once, a time when the organic section of the supermarket actually contained products from local farmers but as soon as Big business realized they could make some money off it became a cooperate run industry. In California alone a mere five farms produce over $600 million in organic produce and over 70% of all organic milk comes from just one farm. Kind of ironic that hippies and green peacers have ended up fighting on the side of evil cooperate America. Cooperation’s that over-price their products and use double the amount of land to yield the same amount of food.

To which I suppose an organic food zealot would reply, well using more land is just a small price to pay for the assurance that your eating healthy nutritious pesticide free foods and this would be a valid point. Organic food is free of synthetic pesticides and these pesticides have had a bad reputation in the past for causing health problems. These situations, however, were mostly concentrated in the 1960’s and 1970’s when there was little government regulation surrounding agricultural practices. Times have a changed and food production is now highly regulated and scrutinized. Furthermore you can thank decades of science research for giving us modern synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that are now completely biodegradable and safe.

I wish I could say the same thing about organic food. As mentioned earlier organic food uses natural pesticides made of urine and feces. It is for this reason that these “”all natural’ pesticides contain some of the deadliest bacteria and toxic chemicals around. For example, E. coli is a bacterium commonly found in waste products. The same waste used to fertilize organic agriculture. There is a very good reason why this type of natural technology was replaced with today’s modern practices and that is because these ancient methods were unhealthy and unsafe. Case in point, remember in 2006 when the United States had two major outbreaks of E. coli, both resulting in deaths and numerous illnesses. They were ultimately traced to organically grown spinach and lettuce. According to the Center for Global Food Issues, organic foods make up about 1% of all the food sold in the United States, but it accounts for 8% of E. coli cases (Dunning, 2007).

Finally, one last health concern regarding non-organic food is the potential for the synthetic pesticide to leave residues that can have a long-term negative impact on your health. This claim, however, has no concrete evidence to back it up. In fact, organic food has to use 9x the amount of pesticides compared to non-organic food in order to match its effectiveness. This super high dosage of pesticide is by no means healthier for you just because it is organic. In reality organic pesticides contain such delightful things as rotenone, which has been shown to cause the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease and is also used as a natural poison for hunting by some native tribes; pyrethrum, which is carcinogenic; sabadilla, which is highly toxic to honeybees; and fermented urine, which contains E. coli. None of which sound very healthy for consummation.

So if organic food is not supporting small farmers and is not healthier to eat then there must be some benefit to the environment. Not likely considering that organic farming uses double the amount of land to produce the same amount of produce. As farming areas increase to keep up with the demands of an ever-growing population more land must be used destroyed to make way for these farms. Consequently if we deicide to employ organic farming methods in third world nations then we must destroy double the amount of rainforests, jungles, and forests to accommodate it. I don’t know about you but that does not sound very environmentally friendly to me.

The bottom line is if you choose to buy organic please understand that you are not doing it for anyone other then yourself. You have created the delusion that you are somehow purifying yourself and the environment by doing nothing more then choosing to buy a corporate product. In other words you enjoy the effects of feeling good about yourself with minimal effort. Which is a great believe me I have been there but in the process please do not be hypocritical or just about it. Buy it because it makes you feel good not because it is going to save the planet.

To learn more check out some of the links below.

Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?

AgBioWorld

The Golden Rice Project

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