Organic Food

[Belleraphone]

What are your thoughts on this? I am actually very skeptical. Organic food still uses pesticides, and GMO crops are far more efficient. While the GMO is a huge agribusiness, much of the organic food produced is also owned by large corporations.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Organic food is a fad. Sustainable and healthy agriculture does not necessarily equal the bizarre tenets and conditions of pseudo-regulatory bodies like the Soil Association, actually a private "charity" founded by weirdo toffs like Lady Eve Balfour, and supported to this day by weirdo toffs like Prince Charles.

Also, the only difference as far as I can tell with the end product is that it is more expensive.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Morrisons' organic peanut butter was nicer than Morrisons standard own brand in my experience.

[jake williams]

It kind of depends. If you're dumping poison on your food, it's generally going to be less healthy. My understanding is that quite a few fruits and vegetables are bred for shelf life at the expense of nutrients. Eating rotten food isn't great, but clearly this isn't ideal (a dilemma which raises questions about "local food", but that's another story).

But food technology is a very good thing. The main reasons we use pesticides is so we can feed more people, which I support. And I can't think of a fruit or vegetable which humans regularly eat which hasn't been heavily modified by centuries, or at least decades, of heavy intervention (ie. direct or indirect genetic engineering).

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Genetic engineering has the advantage of working on the genes directly, making it possible for us to cut and paste genes for pest resistance among different crops and thus enabling us to use fewer or perhaps even no pesticides.

That's my main problem with organic food. It's avoiding the problem by reverting to some rosy pre-industrial ideal instead of tackling the privatisation of our genetic commons which stifles genuine advances.