Organic Food

[Liz Ratcliff]

Check this out and let's chat...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0

[Ben Willaert]

This reminds me of the talk we had awhile back on Michael Moore. This movie would appear to be preying on peoples fears, and giving them someone to blame for their own poor decisions. There is good food out there. Blaming the wrong thing is never good for society. Sensationalism negates education.

While some of the current practices in agriculture may have negative side effects, the movement towards organic food is not the answer. In fact, that movement is almost dead. The high costs and limited amount of production would result in world wide hunger from lack of food. Now studies show organic food isn’t even better nutritionally. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090729103728.htm

Food borne illness becoming more prevalent, I think, is more due to diagnosis and the media. Ten years ago if you went to the doctor with a stomach ache, he would tell you to take some aspirin and call him in the morning. Now-days it is traced back to the peanut butter, and we have a multi-million dollar recall. All to stop some minor stomach aches. The food industry is getting much better at keeping the food safer then it ever has been. The increased food quantities and accountability is what brings food borne illness to our attention more these days.

When a problem crops up it is also larger because of the distribution. It used to be a local meat market would have some E.coli and a few people in the area would get sick. Now the meat contaminates more meat and is moved all around the country. 1 sick pig can now have a much bigger impact then 100 sick pigs 30 years ago because of contaminating other food while in distribution.

The attention to detail and record keeping in food production is mind blowing. Tour a plant like General Mills in Northfield. The level of sanitation and quality testing using top notch technology will have you at awe. It is light years past the school lunch lady hairnet and plastic gloves.

[Steven Schmidt]

There is a show on Showtime called "Penn and Tellers B.S." that just did a show about organic food last week. I checked the guide, but unfortunately it isn't on this week. According to their experts, if all the agriculture in the world became organic roughly 3 billion people would starve to death.

Another thing that should concern people is the fact that 30% of all organic food is imported from China. Who watches them to make sure they are following the organic rules?

Something that stunned me on the show was that many organic farmers use chemicals on there crops. They just use older types that don't work as well and are actually more dangerous.

Organic farmers don't use man made fertilizers, so if every farmer switched to this method they would all have to start raising a lot of animals for the manure. And as we all know, cows and pigs are a huge part of global warming.

There is no real proof that an organic veggie is any healthier for you, it just lets people feel better about themselves by thinking they are eating healthier and saving the planet. I absolutely think that if people want to pay more to eat organic they should, but they should also know that many things they think about organic aren't true.