Can organic food kill kids?

Question

I have heard of at least a couple of kids being killed by organic food. Is this true? Anyone have any links to the articles? Organic food doesn't appear to be as good as one thinks.

Answer 1

organic food can be harmful to kids. i'm not sure if it kills them but one thing i do know is that it is not good for them. however, it can lead to the young child looking very old for their age or before time.it is adviced to prepare special food for young children and not to feed them with ever and anything.

Answer 2

I saw your question and so I did a little bit of research really fast. The answer is "no", organic food will not kill anyone. However, since most food in the United States is in some way modified, "organic" food is more likely to come from the 3rd world, and therefore more likely to carry decease.

Provided some sources, hopefully they'll be a little more helpful, I only did about 4 minutes of research.

Answer 3

Organic food can definitely cause problems.  It is generally unprotected from contamination and spoilage  since use of those agents are generally banned in order to receive the organic label.  Some of the most toxic substances known are pure "organics".  for example mold toxins, strychnine, E. coli, Salmonela, etc.  If you look closely in the grocery store. quite often the items in the "organic" bins look like the stuff they are ready to throw away in the regular bins.  The E. coli contaminated vegetables which caused recent problems came from "organic" fertilizers, not chemical fertilizers.  The advantage to chemical fertilizers lie in the fact that they are relatively pure compounds.  That is also the disadvantage, since they do not contain all the nutrients necessary for optimum plant growth.  Animal manures and green manures do contain all those elements in ratios necessary to maintain growth.  Both raw sewage and well composted manures would classify a product for "organic" labeling, but from a health standpoint they are very, very different.  Do you want a bright shiny apple coated with a little non-toxic wax, or a shriveled, worm-eaten, bird pecked "organic" apple.  You are a better judge of quality in the grocery store toda;y than a ruling made several years ago on whether something is "organic" or not.  You have heard of "buyer beware"

Answer 4

Hemlock can be grown organically and will definitely kill anyone.

Eating a diet of ONLY organic parsley for 10 years will most likely kill anyone.

So the answer is an unqualified yes.

But is this really the question you meant to ask?

Can a food substance, safe in all other respects, consumed in a way (quantity, preparation) that is also safe, become unsafe just and ONLY because it is organic? No, because being "organic" is defined by a LACK of substances.

The question to ask is "how is organic food defined" today, and does it protect us adequately against all poisons. Organic is defined by a LACK of substances (pesticides, etc...) as determined by a particular law. If this law allows a certain poison to be added to the food, and that poison can kill, then yes, a certain food labelled organic can kill.

The legistation of organic food, especially in the USA, is quickly becoming a mockery, with pressures from big agri-business like Monsanto contributing major disinformation campaigns and money to law-makers. There is a compelling argument that in the near future, the term "organic" will be quasi-meaningless for practical purposes.

The only way to know what goes into your food is to grow your own, on soil that you have controlled for generations, with water you have known for centuries. Good luck to all of us with that.

Answer 5

The only way an organic food could hurt anyone is:

1) The organic materials used where not used correctly and contaminated the food. Manure is organic but can have E. coli and if on the food surface and not washed or properly cooked may kill a child or elderly individual.

2) Some organic pesticides are equally as poisonous as chemicals, organic does not mean non-toxic and though the LD 50 (lethal dose to kill 50%) is generally higher in most products, not always and not for children and the elderly.

3) Organic fertilizer and other organic agricultural chemicals need to be used with strict adherence to warnings and directions, especially with foods. One product that is used on one type of crop at a specific time (as in no closer to a specified harvest time) when used on the wrong crop at the wrong time (lettuce a couple days from harvest?) could be highly toxic.

4) Some things should not be given to children at all, and children could be harmed from abrupt changes in diet. You can not wake up one morning and decide "Today I will change our diet". Children need to be introduced to a food change slowly, and harsher non-processed food could cause intestinal upset and could even get a complete blockage. Keep in mind that some things, like HONEY (in an effort to get away from processed sugar), should not be given to the very young as it has a high Clostridium botulinum bacteria level from natural sources. For the young bodies that have not had time to become accustomed to foods and natural bacterias, toxins, and such, the high botulism causing bacteria is deadly.

5) Organic food and the lifestyle need some level of knowlege to be a good thing, as in the proper balance and combination of foods to give a growing child, or adult, everything needed. If something is missing, like an amino acid or two, then there is no protein even though the rest of the amino's are there. Miss a key vitamin and nerves don't grow right or function because the nutrieints are not taken up for the lack of it. Or some vital function doesn't. Organic clean living is good but you need to know what you are doing or you will hurt yourself or your children.

Answer 6

I should think this unlikely, excepting the following circumstances:

1) Poor sanitation-- since organic agriculture tends to rely on manure more than chemical fertilizers, there might be an increased chance of bacterial contamination IF the products aren't carefully cleaned (always wash your produce, organic or otherwise).

2) Specific allergies-- organic peanuts, for example, would be as deadly as any other peanuts to a person with a nut allergy.

Answer 7

Neoplop was right on with saying that the term "organic" is quickly becoming a mockery.  Large agribusiness is attempting to cash in on that and other terms like "free range" poultry.  The facts are that any food you buy from large producers poses a potential hazard.  Think about it.  You are purchasing one of your most basic requirements from a company that tries to cut every corner it can to save each penny per pound of product.  They pay low wage workers who have no interest in providing a quality product.  Sanitation becomes much more difficult with high volume production models.  Terms like the ones mentioned and "100% Fresh" are highly regulated and most often initiated by the big food corps, to push small scale farmers out of business and lull consumers into a false sense of security.  Take a closer look at that "100% Fresh", I will bet what that means to you and what that means to the USDA etc is very different.  Meat for example, that stamp means it hasnt been below a certain temp., thats it.  So companies now are pumping meat full of coloring agents and sealing the packages with carbon monoxide mixtures, then transporting meat over long distances unfrozen, and plopping it on grocery store shelves where it is practically ruined when you buy it.  But its "100% Fresh".  

If you are really that concerned about your food quality, locate your local farmers market, start a coop garden and get to know who makes your food on a first name basis.  Drive around the countryside and search for vegetable gardens and offer the gardener cash for some of the produce.  Find farmers raising grass fed beef and offer to buy one and have it butchered.   Lease an acre somewhere in your area and grow your own garden.  You can container grow enough vegetables in your garage, backyard or basement to supply your family year round with the majority of your needs.  There are a myriad of ways to obtain healthy food grown locally.   The key is finding it from true agrarians who care about the land, the animals and the quality of their produce.  People have lost touch with their food sources and turned over their health to the government and mega corporations.

Answer 8

no orgaNIC FOODS do not kill children

Answer 9

No more than any other food could if contaminated. Organic simply means no chemical fertilizer, no pesticides. Not being organic carries no gaurantee that the food is not contaminated in exactly the same way organic food could be. The spinach that caused the last e coli outbreak was not organic to my knowledge. Last I heard water carried cow manure from nearby fields to contaminate it.

The thing you should do is cook the vegetables and then no problem. Else, wash well in chlorinated water. Of course the chlorine might ruin the organic aspect of it for you. Still no pesticides.

Answer 10

No providing it is the real  stuff, but so many places now say it is and can be contaminated, even so called certified can be contaminated  by wind, rain, water and etc....one day in the grocery store I observed a worker cleaning the area above vegatables where the sticker prices are and it was ungly stuff, he had it running down on the lettuce and carrots below with out doing a thing about it....

Answer 11

It can kill mostly organic farmer's kids, but of hunger...

Answer 12

Stander food & Junk food only kills kids..........look @ all the obesity kids

The Bush Administration is giving Americans new reason to watch what they eat. Over the course of ten days last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued three 'guidances' and one directive, all legally binding interpretations of law, that threaten to seriously dilute the meaning of the word 'organic' and discredit the department's National Organic Program.

The changes which would allow the use of antibiotics on organic dairy cows, as well as synthetic pesticides on organic farms, and more… were made with zero input from the public or the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the advisory group that worked for more than a decade to help craft the first federal organic standards, put in place in October 2002. The USDA insists the changes are harmless: "The directives have not changed anything. They are just clarifications of what are in the regulations that were written by the National Organic Standards Board," stated USDA spokesperson Joan s******r. "They just explain what's enforceable. There is no difference…. (between the clarifications and the original regulations)… it's just another way of explaining it."

But Jim Riddle, vice chair of the NOSB and endowed chair of agricultural systems at the University of Minnesota argues that what the USDA is trying to pass off as a clarification of regulations is in fact a substantial change: "These are the sorts of changes for which the department is supposed to do a formal new rulemaking process, with posting in the federal register, feedback from our advisory board, and a public-comment period. And yet there is no such process denoted anywhere."

Organic activists suspect that industry pressure drove the policy shifts. They point out that the USDA leadership has longstanding industry sympathies: Agricultural Secretary Ann Veneman served on the board of directors of a biotech company; both her chief of staff and director of communications were plucked right out of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. One practice favored by large agribusiness is the use of antibiotics on cows. A USDA guidance issued on April 14 will allow just that on organic dairy farms - a dramatic reversal of 2002 rules.

Under the new guidelines, sickly dairy cows can be treated not just with antibiotics but with numerous other drugs and still have their milk qualify as organic, so long as 12 months pass between the time the treatments are administered and the time the milk is sold. "This new directive makes a mockery of organic standards," said Richard Wood, a recent member of the FDA's Medicine Advisory Committee and executive director of Food Animal Concerns Trust. Another new guidance put out the same day would allow cattle farmers to feed their heifers non-organic fishmeal that could be riddled with synthetic preservatives, mercury, and PCBs, and still sell their beef as organic. And the following week, on April 23, the USDA took the startling step of issuing a legal directive that opens the door for use of some synthetic pesticides on organic farms.

Last but certainly not least, another guidance released on April 14 narrows the scope of the federal organic certification program to crops, livestock, and the products derived from them, meaning that national organic standards will not be developed for fish, nutritional supplements, pet food, fertilizers, cosmetics, or personal-care products. Despite the USDA's demurrals, activists view the department's changes as a serious threat to hard-won standards for organic products.

The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and other groups are investigating possible industry influence into the USDA's process, and some environmental groups are preparing to take legal action

Answer 13

Organic food won't kill you. You just have to make sure it's actually organic and not organically treated with chemicals. Food from the garden out back won't kill you. It's the non-organic stuff you really need to watch. For example, most heads of lettuce get washed in a water-chlorine mixture. Does that seem healthy?