3 ms·

How is organic bullshit?

msandford 11y ago
Well "USDA Certified Organic" doesn't really mean what you would think it means. You'd think it means no pesticides, no herbicides, no fungicides, and no fertilizer. That's precisely what nearly everyone thinks it means. http://lifehacker.com/5941881/what-does-organic-really-mean-and-should-i-buy-it http://lifehacker.com/5941881/what-does-organic-really-mean-... The reality is that "Organic" doesn't mean anywhere near what people think it does, sadly. It's fairly watered down. It's a bummer.
awjr 11y ago
Depends on if the bull eats grass from a pesticide-free pasture ;)
jarito 11y ago
There is no standard dictating what organic means. Many 'organic' products use processes and methods that most people would not recognize as organic. A consumer buying an organic product has little to no knowledge of whether the producer is being faithful to the concept. Add a huge price markup for organic products and many producers are incentivized to mark products organic even if they really aren't - and many are doing so. There are attempts to standardize, but none have the recognizability needed by the majority of the populace to make them effective.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
goodJobWalrus 11y ago
Apart of other replies, there is also no evidence that is any better for than conventionally grown produce.
- bad_user 11y ago
  I'm not from the US, but from Romania. My grandparents lived on the country-side, working the land and during the communists Romania did not have much access to the vast quantities of pesticides and fertilizer that the US was left with after WWII, due to a large surplus of ammonium nitrate and of various poison gases. Our animals were not fed and grown on cheap, subsidized corn and kept alive with antibiotics. Our diary products were not low fat. Our white flour was given for export. Etc, etc.. And guess what, after 1990, after the revolution, when we started importing food and adopting the "western diet", we ended up with the same shock like everybody else ... people getting fatter, increased rates of type II diabetes, increased rates of coronary artery disease, etc. And most importantly I think - our food is losing its taste, because vegetables grown with pesticides and artificial fertilizers have shallower root systems, grow faster and thus are unable to gather the same amount of nutrients as vegetables grown normally and in season. Same goes for animals, like cattle or pigs or chicken, raised on corn and kept alive with antibiotics. In regards to your statement, organic food is the conventional way to produce food, and note that I'm not talking about any standard, but about how people have been growing food before we discovered what fossil fuels are good for. There's actually plenty of evidence to go around, plenty of studies, showing links between the western diet and type II diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, with my father's PhD thesis being one, evidence that has been ignored because it flies in the face of the low-fat bullshit we've been fed, plus it goes against a multi-billion dollar industry. Artificial fertilizers are also known to be responsible for the destruction of our environment, leading to such effects as water pollution with nitrate or acidification of the soil.
  - Dylan16807 11y ago
    But 'organic' only covers a third of that. You can make horrible junk food with organic ingredients.
    - bad_user 11y ago
      True. We need a new word I think.

Well "USDA Certified Organic" doesn't really mean what you would think it means. You'd think it means no pesticides, no herbicides, no fungicides, and no fertilizer. That's precisely what nearly everyone thinks it means. http://lifehacker.com/5941881/what-does-organic-really-mean-and-should-i-buy-it http://lifehacker.com/5941881/what-does-organic-really-mean-... The reality is that "Organic" doesn't mean anywhere near what people think it does, sadly. It's fairly watered down. It's a bummer.

awjr 11y ago

Depends on if the bull eats grass from a pesticide-free pasture ;)

jarito 11y ago

There is no standard dictating what organic means. Many 'organic' products use processes and methods that most people would not recognize as organic. A consumer buying an organic product has little to no knowledge of whether the producer is being faithful to the concept. Add a huge price markup for organic products and many producers are incentivized to mark products organic even if they really aren't - and many are doing so. There are attempts to standardize, but none have the recognizability needed by the majority of the populace to make them effective.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

goodJobWalrus 11y ago

Apart of other replies, there is also no evidence that is any better for than conventionally grown produce.

bad_user 11y ago
I'm not from the US, but from Romania. My grandparents lived on the country-side, working the land and during the communists Romania did not have much access to the vast quantities of pesticides and fertilizer that the US was left with after WWII, due to a large surplus of ammonium nitrate and of various poison gases. Our animals were not fed and grown on cheap, subsidized corn and kept alive with antibiotics. Our diary products were not low fat. Our white flour was given for export. Etc, etc.. And guess what, after 1990, after the revolution, when we started importing food and adopting the "western diet", we ended up with the same shock like everybody else ... people getting fatter, increased rates of type II diabetes, increased rates of coronary artery disease, etc. And most importantly I think - our food is losing its taste, because vegetables grown with pesticides and artificial fertilizers have shallower root systems, grow faster and thus are unable to gather the same amount of nutrients as vegetables grown normally and in season. Same goes for animals, like cattle or pigs or chicken, raised on corn and kept alive with antibiotics. In regards to your statement, organic food is the conventional way to produce food, and note that I'm not talking about any standard, but about how people have been growing food before we discovered what fossil fuels are good for. There's actually plenty of evidence to go around, plenty of studies, showing links between the western diet and type II diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, with my father's PhD thesis being one, evidence that has been ignored because it flies in the face of the low-fat bullshit we've been fed, plus it goes against a multi-billion dollar industry. Artificial fertilizers are also known to be responsible for the destruction of our environment, leading to such effects as water pollution with nitrate or acidification of the soil.
- Dylan16807 11y ago
  But 'organic' only covers a third of that. You can make horrible junk food with organic ingredients.
  - bad_user 11y ago
    True. We need a new word I think.