4 ms·

Avoiding pesticides is half of why I go organic the other is just plain taste. I don't know if that's because the plant varieties are different, or the method

Avoiding pesticides is half of why I go organic the other is just plain taste. I don't know if that's because the plant varieties are different, or the method or whatever, but I've blind tested myself (no, it's not scientific, more like Mythbusters's level science) and I can easily tell the produce apart. That it tastes better may just be in my head, but I can definitely tell them apart just by taste.

easp 17y ago
There are a motif reasons for the better taste. Often organic produce doesn't get shipped as far, which means growers can pick varieties bread for something other than shelf-life and durability. Also, organic farmers manage the soil differently. Intensive industrial farming depletes soils and relies on extensive use of refined fertilizers to make up forthe deficit. The soil at organic farms is often richer and plants can pick up more minerals, which can have a real impact on flavor.
- rjurney 17y ago
  Actually, some organic products get shipped further - when there is no local production. Milk is a good example of this. Organic milk is literally inferior to plain milk - it is pasteurized at higher temperatures, has lower levels of Vitamin D as a result, because it has to last longer during shipping in a larger distribution network.
  - jamroom 17y ago
    Organic milk has other ancillary benefits you won't find in "plain" milk: The land and animals are treated much better. If you have ever seen a "normal" dairy farm, and watch the amount of antibiotics used to prevent the cow's udders from become infected, it becomes clear that life (for a cow at least) on a organic dairy farm is much a much nicer existence (and thus one I personally want to encourage). Also - the grains that are fed to organic dairy cows must be organic, which means more acres of organic grain production. Many organic dairy farms also do not milk cows that are in the later stages of pregnancy, which reduces the amount of estrogen in the milk fat (high levels of estrogen in the diet are linked to cancer).
    - rjurney 17y ago
      And all of that is less important from a health perspective than a reduction in Vitamin D. Its a net loss.
      - deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
      - ikkiv 17y ago
        So why not use other foods to compensate for the Vitamin D loss? A single serving of tuna naturally contains double(5 microgram) the amount of vitamin D present in a glass of fortified milk(2.5 microgram for fortified, 1microgram for non-fortified).
        rjurney 17y ago
        Why would I want to lower the quality of one food and replace it with another? I was on the organic milk bandwagon, but its simply inferior.
      - jamroom 17y ago
        The Organic milk I buy is both Vitamin A and D fortified, so that's real not an issue.
        rjurney 17y ago
        They add chemicals, and you think thats an improvement?
  - biohacker42 17y ago
    Organic milk is literally inferior to plain milk I'm not sure about that when you factor in that in the US (and Canada?) antibiotics and recombinant bovine growth hormone are commonly given to cattle. The side effects of rGBH include puss in the milk.
    - rjurney 17y ago
      And yet we actually have incredibly clean, great milk without any significant levels of these things.
potatolicious 17y ago
Agreed. I bought a bundle of organic cilantro a little while back and it was stinking up the place (in a good way) that normal cilantro simply doesn't. Much or the organic stuff just tastes better. This goes doubly for eggs - organic & free-range eggs are just a world apart from regular farm eggs.
callmeed 17y ago
That it tastes better may just be in my head, but I can definitely tell them apart just by taste. It would be interesting to do a blind taste-test between organic and non-organic produce ... Pepsi Challenge style.
- biohacker42 17y ago
  Interestingly enough that has been done with rats: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/dining/03curi.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/dining/03curi.html And the rats preferred organic.
  - tokenadult 17y ago
    Thanks for this very interesting link, by an author whose writings I like a lot. (He is a chemist who writes about food, a good background to have for this thread.) It is a puzzler that he mentions one small sample of rats http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html that doesn't show the same result (indifference to whether or not food is "organic") shown in many human studies he mentions in his article. This kind of study needs a bigger sample size and a great deal more replication. Here's another problem: how do we know that either human beings or rats prefer what is best for them? Preferences for smells and tastes may have evolutionary origins that are then exploited by adaptations of food organisms in ways that are not beneficial to the eater.
  - callmeed 17y ago
    Very interesting, thanks. Weird that they chose rats and haven't (that we know of) done a study with humans. After all, it's not as if such a study has any inherent danger.
- igrekel 17y ago
  Actually, we have tried this with my mother in law (not that I want to pick on her) who was convinced that organic bananas tasted better. We made her taste the bananas blindfolded and she couldn't tell the organic and non-organic bananas apart. We were however capable of telling the difference between organic and non-organic chicken tough.
sammyo 17y ago
Some food is grown for visual appeal as well as more realistic goals as increased shelf life or disease resistance. The huge beautiful, yet almost flavorless Golden Delicious being a classic example.

easp 17y ago

There are a motif reasons for the better taste. Often organic produce doesn't get shipped as far, which means growers can pick varieties bread for something other than shelf-life and durability. Also, organic farmers manage the soil differently. Intensive industrial farming depletes soils and relies on extensive use of refined fertilizers to make up forthe deficit. The soil at organic farms is often richer and plants can pick up more minerals, which can have a real impact on flavor.

rjurney 17y ago
Actually, some organic products get shipped further - when there is no local production. Milk is a good example of this. Organic milk is literally inferior to plain milk - it is pasteurized at higher temperatures, has lower levels of Vitamin D as a result, because it has to last longer during shipping in a larger distribution network.
- jamroom 17y ago
  Organic milk has other ancillary benefits you won't find in "plain" milk: The land and animals are treated much better. If you have ever seen a "normal" dairy farm, and watch the amount of antibiotics used to prevent the cow's udders from become infected, it becomes clear that life (for a cow at least) on a organic dairy farm is much a much nicer existence (and thus one I personally want to encourage). Also - the grains that are fed to organic dairy cows must be organic, which means more acres of organic grain production. Many organic dairy farms also do not milk cows that are in the later stages of pregnancy, which reduces the amount of estrogen in the milk fat (high levels of estrogen in the diet are linked to cancer).
  - rjurney 17y ago
    And all of that is less important from a health perspective than a reduction in Vitamin D. Its a net loss.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - ikkiv 17y ago
      So why not use other foods to compensate for the Vitamin D loss? A single serving of tuna naturally contains double(5 microgram) the amount of vitamin D present in a glass of fortified milk(2.5 microgram for fortified, 1microgram for non-fortified).
      - rjurney 17y ago
        Why would I want to lower the quality of one food and replace it with another? I was on the organic milk bandwagon, but its simply inferior.
    - jamroom 17y ago
      The Organic milk I buy is both Vitamin A and D fortified, so that's real not an issue.
      - rjurney 17y ago
        They add chemicals, and you think thats an improvement?
- biohacker42 17y ago
  Organic milk is literally inferior to plain milk I'm not sure about that when you factor in that in the US (and Canada?) antibiotics and recombinant bovine growth hormone are commonly given to cattle. The side effects of rGBH include puss in the milk.
  - rjurney 17y ago
    And yet we actually have incredibly clean, great milk without any significant levels of these things.

potatolicious 17y ago

Agreed. I bought a bundle of organic cilantro a little while back and it was stinking up the place (in a good way) that normal cilantro simply doesn't. Much or the organic stuff just tastes better. This goes doubly for eggs - organic & free-range eggs are just a world apart from regular farm eggs.

callmeed 17y ago

That it tastes better may just be in my head, but I can definitely tell them apart just by taste. It would be interesting to do a blind taste-test between organic and non-organic produce ... Pepsi Challenge style.

biohacker42 17y ago
Interestingly enough that has been done with rats: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/dining/03curi.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/dining/03curi.html And the rats preferred organic.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  Thanks for this very interesting link, by an author whose writings I like a lot. (He is a chemist who writes about food, a good background to have for this thread.) It is a puzzler that he mentions one small sample of rats http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html that doesn't show the same result (indifference to whether or not food is "organic") shown in many human studies he mentions in his article. This kind of study needs a bigger sample size and a great deal more replication. Here's another problem: how do we know that either human beings or rats prefer what is best for them? Preferences for smells and tastes may have evolutionary origins that are then exploited by adaptations of food organisms in ways that are not beneficial to the eater.
- callmeed 17y ago
  Very interesting, thanks. Weird that they chose rats and haven't (that we know of) done a study with humans. After all, it's not as if such a study has any inherent danger.
igrekel 17y ago
Actually, we have tried this with my mother in law (not that I want to pick on her) who was convinced that organic bananas tasted better. We made her taste the bananas blindfolded and she couldn't tell the organic and non-organic bananas apart. We were however capable of telling the difference between organic and non-organic chicken tough.

sammyo 17y ago

Some food is grown for visual appeal as well as more realistic goals as increased shelf life or disease resistance. The huge beautiful, yet almost flavorless Golden Delicious being a classic example.