Information supporting going organic because of food additives and pesticides..?

Question

I am doing a research report that is due friday and I am having trouble putting it together. I was wondering if anyone knew of an essay on that subject that already exists just for ideas.

Answer 1

texas R needs to look at the more recent peer reviewed research on organic food. In the past there was a lot of really bad research about organics, too often designed to prove that organics will never be able to come close to conventional ag.

But now that there is USDA backing and a lot of money being spent there is also a lot better research.

Coming soon is a huge research project out of England sponsored by the soil association. Prelim data is showing strongly that organic foods are indeed better for you.

organics is no more a religion than biotech which has never had good science when it comes to feeding studies (all we have is the huge uncontrolled study of feeding the population GMO's without their knowledge and if they get ill from the GMO's it will be unprovable because the biotech clergy refused to do such studies before commercializing these crops and putting GMO grains into every not certified organic processed food.

lots of articles and essays at the link below

Answer 2

I have looked into this and find scientific data supporting the "organic" movement to be very limited and, quite frankly, faulty.  Many of the experiments that were conducted in the past have been highly confounded (example: an analysis of organic tomatoes versus store purchased tomatoes found the organic were higher in certain minerals and sugars.  It was concluded the organic technique produced tomatoes of a superior quality.  

However, the organic tomatoes were ripened on the vine outside the building, harvested and immediately analsysed.   The store tomatoes were picked green, shipped across the country, unpacked, placed on display, picked up, purchased, hauled to the lab, then analyzed.    This reveals the confounding.  Was it the "organic method" that produced a superior product, or the processing required to produce tomatoes for the commercial suburban market that produced an inferior fruit.

It often appears the "organic" movement is more similar to religion than it is a science.

Answer 3

Sorry, but I'm adamantly opposed to discarding the last century's advances in agriculture in favor of rot, disease, and insect infestation.  When you have to cut the worms out of every apple you try to eat, "organic" loses its appeal rapidly.  Without additives to prolong shelf life  many foods would not be available to distant markets.

Answer 4

Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards. For crops, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.[1] For animals, it means they were reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified.

Organic food production is legally regulated. Currently, the United States, the European Union, Japan and many other countries require producers to obtain organic certification in order to market food as organic.

Historically, organic farms have been relatively small family-run farms — which is why organic food was once only available in small stores or farmers' markets. Now, organic foods are becoming much more widely available — organic food sales within the United States have grown by 17 to 20 percent a year for the past few years while sales of conventional food have grown at only about 2 to 3 percent a year. This large growth is predicted to continue, and many companies are jumping into the market.

Organic farming is a form of agriculture which excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators, livestock feed additives, and genetically modified organisms. As far as possible, organic farmers rely on crop rotation, integrated pest management, green manure, crop residue, compost and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and control pests.

Organic agricultural methods are internationally regulated and legally enforced by many nations, based in large part on the standards set by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, an international umbrella organization for organic organizations. Approximately 310,000 square kilometres (75 million acres) worldwide are now grown organically.[1]

The overarching goal of organic farming is defined as follows:

"The role of organic agriculture, whether in farming, processing, distribution, or consumption, is to sustain and enhance the health of ecosystems and organisms from the smallest in the soil to human beings."

hope it is of help

source wikipedia.com

Answer 5

Organic animal products must come from animals which have not been given routine antibiotic treatments or growth hormones, although antibiotic treatment for sick animals is permitted. Conventional pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, genetic engineering and irradiation are all prohibited in certified organic food.

I hope this article will help you.

Answer 6

For conventional farming to be considered non organic it must have 500 addictives or more. Even after washing it well half of the addictives still remain. I did an FFA speech on this and it is really fun. Look for things under organic farming reducing organophosphorus pesticide exposure in organic food. a good place to look for things on biodiversity and sustainablitity of organic farming is on a website like Core4 or something. Good luck. You could even talk to an agricutureal teacher to help you out. that's what i did.