5 ms·

Why do you have that preference? It's my understanding that the alternatives are worse.

hutzlibu 8y ago
Organic food is worse than food wich was treated with various chemicals to kill living things? Thats news to me. But you probably mean "alternatives" for producing dirt cheap. Then yes, there are much worse substances around. Doesn't make it good, though.
- driverdan 8y ago
  Organic food is treated with pesticides and herbicides too. There's a limited list of allowed chemicals, some of which are much worse than glycophosphate.
  - barrkel 8y ago
    To be sure we're all on the same page, there are differences in organic regulation in the US vs the EU. I don't know much about the US situation, but an outline of EU general regulations for organic plants is https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-on-production/plants-and-plant-products_en https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-... : > Basic substances allowed in organic agriculture comply with two criteria: i) they are of vegetable or animal origin ii) they are considered to be "foodstuff"
    - icebraining 8y ago
      That's not true, though, there are authorized exceptions, like copper. See Annex II, table 3: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2016.116.01.0008.01.ENG https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=uriserv%...
- daveFNbuck 8y ago
  No, I mean that the chemicals used in organic farming to kill living things are more harmful to humans than glyphosate is.
  - hutzlibu 8y ago
    The (small) organic farmers I know dont use pesticides at all. And as far as I know, here in europe they would not be allowed to use anything realy toxic, when they want to have the organic label. So things are different in the US then? Or also for europe? sources please.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > The (small) organic farmers I know dont use pesticides at all. They aren't representative of the bulk of organic food production. Overall, organic food production is, like non-organic food production, dominated by large, industrial agriculture concerns that do use pesticides.
    - sampo 8y ago
      Here's a list of 12 chemicals approved for use in organic farming: https://risk-monger.com/2016/04/13/the-risk-mongers-dirty-dozen-12-highly-toxic-pesticides-approved-for-use-in-organic-farming/ https://risk-monger.com/2016/04/13/the-risk-mongers-dirty-do...
      - barrkel 8y ago
        That site believes organic farming is a hoax. It also also seems to be mixing up data about US regulation and UK opinion (and thus EU regulation). An intro to EU regulation for organic plant farming is https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-on-production/plants-and-plant-products_en https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-...
- nwallin 8y ago
  Organic food IS food which is treated with various chemicals to kill living things. But the list of various chemicals are arbitrarily defined as "natural", putting them in the same list as other safe, natural chemicals like ricin, botulinum, strychnine, arsenic... "Organic" is a marketing term, not a descriptor of the production process.
  - commandar 8y ago
    >"Organic" is a marketing term, not a descriptor of the production process. I generally agree with this, but with the caveat that tomatoes are an exception as I understand it. It's nothing to do with being GMO or pesticides used, but rather the fact that conventionally grown tomatoes are generally harvested significantly pre-ripening, and then gassed with ethylene to promote them turning red. My understanding -- and if I'm wrong about this someone please do chime in -- is that ethylene gassing isn't acceptable for tomatoes that are labeled organic (but is for some "organic" fruits like bananas). It's possible it's all placebo, but tomatoes are the one fruit/vegetable I tend toward actually using organic as result.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > Organic food is worse than food wich was treated with various chemicals to kill living things? Organic food is, itself, generally food which is treated with various chemicals to kill living things. The choice of chemicals involved, and the choice of actual food crop, is limited by concerns that are chosen on bases which are not well adapted to either maximizing safety of the food or minimizing environmental impact of the food growing process.

Organic food is worse than food wich was treated with various chemicals to kill living things? Thats news to me. But you probably mean "alternatives" for producing dirt cheap. Then yes, there are much worse substances around. Doesn't make it good, though.

driverdan 8y ago
Organic food is treated with pesticides and herbicides too. There's a limited list of allowed chemicals, some of which are much worse than glycophosphate.
- barrkel 8y ago
  To be sure we're all on the same page, there are differences in organic regulation in the US vs the EU. I don't know much about the US situation, but an outline of EU general regulations for organic plants is https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-on-production/plants-and-plant-products_en https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-... : > Basic substances allowed in organic agriculture comply with two criteria: i) they are of vegetable or animal origin ii) they are considered to be "foodstuff"
  - icebraining 8y ago
    That's not true, though, there are authorized exceptions, like copper. See Annex II, table 3: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2016.116.01.0008.01.ENG https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=uriserv%...
daveFNbuck 8y ago
No, I mean that the chemicals used in organic farming to kill living things are more harmful to humans than glyphosate is.
- hutzlibu 8y ago
  The (small) organic farmers I know dont use pesticides at all. And as far as I know, here in europe they would not be allowed to use anything realy toxic, when they want to have the organic label. So things are different in the US then? Or also for europe? sources please.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > The (small) organic farmers I know dont use pesticides at all. They aren't representative of the bulk of organic food production. Overall, organic food production is, like non-organic food production, dominated by large, industrial agriculture concerns that do use pesticides.
  - sampo 8y ago
    Here's a list of 12 chemicals approved for use in organic farming: https://risk-monger.com/2016/04/13/the-risk-mongers-dirty-dozen-12-highly-toxic-pesticides-approved-for-use-in-organic-farming/ https://risk-monger.com/2016/04/13/the-risk-mongers-dirty-do...
    - barrkel 8y ago
      That site believes organic farming is a hoax. It also also seems to be mixing up data about US regulation and UK opinion (and thus EU regulation). An intro to EU regulation for organic plant farming is https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-on-production/plants-and-plant-products_en https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/eu-policy/eu-rules-...
nwallin 8y ago
Organic food IS food which is treated with various chemicals to kill living things. But the list of various chemicals are arbitrarily defined as "natural", putting them in the same list as other safe, natural chemicals like ricin, botulinum, strychnine, arsenic... "Organic" is a marketing term, not a descriptor of the production process.
- commandar 8y ago
  >"Organic" is a marketing term, not a descriptor of the production process. I generally agree with this, but with the caveat that tomatoes are an exception as I understand it. It's nothing to do with being GMO or pesticides used, but rather the fact that conventionally grown tomatoes are generally harvested significantly pre-ripening, and then gassed with ethylene to promote them turning red. My understanding -- and if I'm wrong about this someone please do chime in -- is that ethylene gassing isn't acceptable for tomatoes that are labeled organic (but is for some "organic" fruits like bananas). It's possible it's all placebo, but tomatoes are the one fruit/vegetable I tend toward actually using organic as result.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> Organic food is worse than food wich was treated with various chemicals to kill living things? Organic food is, itself, generally food which is treated with various chemicals to kill living things. The choice of chemicals involved, and the choice of actual food crop, is limited by concerns that are chosen on bases which are not well adapted to either maximizing safety of the food or minimizing environmental impact of the food growing process.