"Organic" vs "Conventional" food

[draggonlaady]

So, my standard statement: the term "organic" food pisses me off. By the very definition of the word, everything you eat had better be organic or you won't process it, you carbon-burner, you.

Anyway, study reported by the BBC found no significant differences in nutritional value between food crops raised using pesticides/fertilizers/etc and "organic" crops. This study did not, mind you, address potential differences in ecological impact between methods.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8174482.stm

Comments

[neogrammarian.livejournal.com]

wait wait wait- ppl think that organic has more nutritional value??

More ecologically sound, entirely likely, and certainly lower in residuals that make us sick (cf hormones fed to cows found in milk fed to little girls who grow up to have endometriosis)

But -nutritional value-??

Tangent- I think you'd like a trend in the UK to label everything a) what variety or breed it is and b) what county, and sometimes even what far it comes from. That's cool, and helps raise awareness w/o going all yuppie locavore about it.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah.... that's the whole advertising point "eat organic, it's healthier for you" I've seen several claims about how over-fertilized crops grow so fast they don't have time to accumulate the right nutrients and are just watered-down chemicals.

There are lots of problems with just assuming organic is better for the environment too... shipping distance and type of management and type of hauler make a huge difference; something that comes from a tractor-plowed field 3 miles away and gets hauled in in the old beater flat-bed 1 ton with no muffler is going to do a good bit more environmental damage than something raised in a greenhouse and shipped by van from 50 miles away, for example.

I've always been bemused to see things like the yogurt in Trader Joe's: all organic, better for you and for the environment! Sold in non-recyclable plastic cups.

[neogrammarian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the transportation issue Really needs to be addressed. I like my fruits and veggies in December as well as anyone, but you'd think we were smart enough to work a balance.

Don't get me started on recycling. It just makes me cranky. My township finally "got" recycling, but the list is short and it means that a lot of plastic still gets tossed (and that's even of the recyclable stuff). I can't even haul it anywhere myself- nowhere in the area will take #5 plastic (which seems to be the most common food container plastic).

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a yogurt container that wasn't a 5...at least, not the individual serving type. and anymore, most of them are not even easily reuseable, because they haven't got lids.

'Round here, the closest place that takes any plastic but milk jugs is 45 miles away. The take 1 and 2, but only if it has a neck smaller than the body, so the open yogurt buckets, coffee cans, etc still aren't accepted.