Organic Food: What Lurks Beneath the Green...

Usually when we think of organic food, we think of Whole Foods, self-conscientious eaters, and people who like to think they're eco-friendly.

But are we really helping the environment when we're going organic?

On one hand, going organic means no pesticides and chemical treatment of food, which is good for human consumption health-wise and the environment.

But, as the Economist of several months ago noted, going organic means losing food per acre yield, which means that more land needs to be turned arable- which ultimately means clearing forests and wildlife to have more farmlands. The reason for this statement is that while chemical fertilizers might have a negative effect on the soil and might even be potentially harmful for human consumption, these chemical fertilizers reduce the need for land to farm with because it makes the land more potent and thus produces more crop. Some scientists predict that going organic globally would mean increasing farmlands by 20% of what we currently already use. The February 21, 2007 Times Online of the UK noted that in the case of organic milk, more CO2 was released and more land was needed for such cows:

"The impact of organic milk was singled out for doubts about its environmental-friendliness because, while having higher levels of nutrients and needing less fertilizer, its production generates more carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, it takes up 80 per cent more land."

Even more surprising is that many people are finding that organic might not even have those so claimed health benefits that made such food so popular. The UK Times Online of January 7, 2007 noted that "Sir John Krebs, a former chairman of the FSA [Food Standards Agency]... said that there was no evidence that organic food was more nutritious or safer than conventionally produced food, despite its cost." The British Nutrition Foundation also voices this opinion, as the BBC of April 26, 2007 adds. The Heartland Institute also found organic food to have negative environmental effects as well.

Of course, many pro-organics say that such studies ignore other key factors, such as improving biodiversity and longer-term benefits that cannot be measured over a short period of time. And granted of course, there are definitely some benefits to going organic.

In the end, most think tanks, organizations, and environmental analysts have concluded that there is not enough information to truly decide whether or not organic food helps the environment- let alone its supposed "health benefits" for human consumption.


As for me, I have almost always been a GMO supporter. I don't mind genetically spliced food, and if we can have GMO crops that are super efficient that don't need pesticides and other potentially dangerous chemicals, then that's the best solution of them all! (The obvious problem with GMOs is reduced genetic diversity and thus mass susceptibility). But the ultimate solution to this all for now, as Heidegger said in his ontological inquiry Being and Time, is just to let things be (I know, a horrible cross-application of his philosophy to agriculture). Let some farms go GMO and let some farms go organic and some go local. Let the people decide what they want- as long as they are an informed mass. GMO labeling is fine, and in fact labeling of all foodstuff might be good. If the means is so important nowadays, might as well tell the consumers the growing methodology of their foodstuff.

Then... there's those local farms... and those local, organic farmers that we didn't even consider...



[Note: the organic debate has not yet entered mainstream American attention yet because 1) the British always seem to be ahead of us on these things and 2) organic food is more of a sore spot in Britain since foreign GMOs have been banned from being imported into the nation (think WTO conflicts), stringent labeling laws for GMO foods are in place in Britain, and organic food is thus a more popular choice for the British than in the US, where most people don't know if food is a GMO and the organic movement has just begun here. That's why most of my sources are British.]

For more reading on the issue go to..
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20945
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6595801.stm
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8380592
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1415464.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/britain/article1290334.ece