Should I eat organic food?

Question

I'm writing an essay about the controversy of organic food, and I found out that because organic foods take more space to farm, that they cause more deforestation...

What are some points I can defend myself with in the essay?

Answer 1

organic in china uses human waste....hepatitis C?

Answer 2

you support population control... because more space is needed we can therefore produce less food and feed less people so only some are able to afford it, thus lowering the population and stopping urban sprawl, over crowding and homelessness. Seems like a positive spin on eating organics.

Maybe you should reconsider and examine the negatives.

Eg. many of the "organic" treatments for insects and fungi are way more harmful (to humans and animals) than their conventional counter parts.

Also, the organic movement has spurred conventional chemical companies to find man-made chemicals that break down faster and have less impact on us and the environment.

Answer 3

organic foods are known to have a higher nutritive value.

they taste better too

Answer 4

Actually it is a myth that organic ag causes more deforestation. in areas of the world where ag is causing deforestation it is from conventional farming, not organic. You can trace that myth to Alex and Dennis Avery, both work for the Hudson institute.

organic farming saves soil because fields, even fallow ones are not left bare. organic farming does require a crop rotation and in that roatation fields need to be fallowed for a season or two but organic farms that are diversified and raised both crops and livestock will generally graze livestock on the fallow field.

Small diversified organic farms (under 200 acres) yield about 3x more than a mono cropping large farm.

Organic farms yield more in bad conditions such as drought according to the Rodale Institute who did a side by side study over 25 years of yields between organic and conventional ag.

Organic farming uses less petroleum.

check out http://www.newfarm.org and you will find plenty of fodder for your essay. Also know that the topic is based on a falsehood put forward by the anti organic crowd that has been disproved.

Also look into the names Tewaras, Eugene Krebs, Dennis Avery, Alex Avery and John Stossel. These are the main anti organic food and agriculture folks writing things for the popular press. pretty much all their arguments have been taken apart as most are weak and based on no science just contjecture.