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 People subscribing to an all-organic lifestyle will be the first to tell you all about the benefits associated with the diet: improved overall health and wellness, exposure to more nutrients, reduced pesticide exposure, support of local farms and businesses, no antibiotic exposure, no preservatives, etc.
Essentially, living this lifestyle might entitle you to make self-satisfying claims about an all-organic diet. (Stop telling us what to do, Gwyneth Paltrow!)
However, living an organic lifestyle will not, as it turns out, save you or the planet, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of British Columbia.
Because the word “organic” is automatically associated with words like “natural” and “fresh,” we assume that we are doing something beneficial for our health and the planet by ingesting these superior products. But there is a subtext to organic labels. A subtext that might upset super-humans believing their body-temples haven’t ingested anything that isn’t “natural.”
In order for a product to be labeled organic by the USDA, only 95% of the ingredients must be strictly organic, leaving room for a small percentage of non-organic materials to slip their way into our systems. Farmers are allowed to treat organic crops with natural pesticides, some being as dangerous as the synthetic pesticides used to treat conventionally-grown crops. (See copper sulfate, popular among organic farmers.)
Also interesting is that there is very little evidence to support the claims that eating organically will imbue you with special health benefits over someone existing on a non-organic diet.
In addition to the labeling issues, organic foods are more likely to give food poisoning (ASAP Science) with 10% containing traces of E. coli (food poisoning bacteria). There is also a higher incidence of food recall with organic foods (1% of all food is recalled with 7% of that being organic).
Ultimately, despite the hidden issues concerning organic food labeling, organic foods are 47% more expensive than conventional foods. Not exactly a practical diet suited for the masses.
Why is an organic diet more expensive than a traditional diet? The study—which looked across 17 critical factors for farming, including: yield, impact on climate change, farmer livelihood, and consumer health—found that organic farming uses more land to produce the same yield as conventional farms. Not only is this more costly, it also leads to increased greenhouse gases and water shortages.
While I am not arguing that everyone give up their organic diets—after all, there are benefits to organic farming, the most obvious being that consumers have more control and knowledge over how their food is produced—I am simply suggesting that the next time a smug, Paltrow-esqe organic super-human self-righteously insists that they are healthier than you, you might point them to this blog—or to the more reliable literature out there that poses the argument far more eloquently.
Are you swayed by organic labels?
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Re: Organic Labeling
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