The Duchess of Zeon wrote:A more relevant reason for organic foods is sustainability of agriculture. We have limited resources on this planet and if agriculture is using them up, we should try to develop ways to eliminate that. Organic comes closer by using fewer fossil fuels, and by engaging in nitrogen fixing and other soil recovery practices rather than intensive monoculture.
Matt Ridley wrote:Of course, the organic farming lobby argues that it, too, can bring back wildlife. But only at a price. Because organic crops require nitrogen grown elsewhere rather than manufactured from the air in a factory, organic farming is land-hungry. The economist Indur Goklany has calculated that if the world tried to feed its current six billion people using the (mainly organic) technologies and yields of 1961, it would require 82% of land area to be cultivated instead of 38%. That means ploughing up the Amazon, irrigating the Sahara and draining the Okavango.
Granted I suppose you could argue this article isn't exactly unbiased ... but I'm generally rather skeptical that switching to less efficient farming techniques would actually be a good idea from an environmentalism and sustainability perspective.
There's a difference between sustainability and carrying capacity, a big one. On the other hand, non-fossil fuel sourced nitrogen is genuinely useful when artificial, there's no question about it. It's just that fossil fuel based fertilizers remain very, very cheap, and so we continue to consume them for no truly good reason except flawed capitalist economics.
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PainRack wrote:As for detectable pesticide residue, that just means washing your veggies, something you're SUPPOSED to do, organic or non organic(E-coil spinach anyone?) and not eating your pork/chicken undercooked. Unless you want salmonella and trichonosis.
Actually this is even more important with 'organic' foods as most of the 'organic' pesticides are a lot more toxic to us then synthetic ones.
"Nobody ever inferred from the multiple infirmities of Windows that Bill Gates was infinitely benevolent, omniscient, and able to fix everything. " Argument against god's perfection.
It really depends on what you mean by "organic", doesn't it?
If organic means manure as fertiliser, you can still get e coli contaminated veggies depending on how you source your manure(off farm vs on site). Then there's also some environmental concerns where organic just doesn't cut it.
Organic farming for example doesn't prevent farmers from tilling the soil until its loose enough that a windstorm will carry away soil(as detailed in Food Nation).
Let him land on any Lyran world to taste firsthand the wrath of peace loving people thwarted by the myopic greed of a few miserly old farts- Katrina Steiner
Food Nation? You mean Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser? Food Nations by Warren Belasco and Philip Scranton? What passage or chapter did you have in mind?
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