It seems like almost everyone today is making a conscious effort to eat healthier if it’s in their price range.  Healthy food costs more while the dollar menu at McDonalds still persists, and  America is the only nation with an over weight poor.  So what is organic food and what does it have to do with our class?

What is organic food?  

In 2002, the USDA introduced new regulations that allowed products to be labeled organic.  The food must contain 95-100% certified organic ingredients to use the USDA’s organic label.  The regulations were meant to minimize consumers exposure to toxins and support sustainable agricultural practices, so citizens could be better informed as to what they are actually putting into our bodies.  Organic Valley offers the following six reasons one should eat organic food:

1.  Nutrient density
2. No persistent pesticides or synthetic fertilizers
3. No synthetic growth or breathing hormones
4. No antibiotics
5. No GMOs
6. Animal care

Why is it more expensive?

The purpose of organic farming is to farm the natural way without the influence of modern day chemicals and toxins, but it costs more.  Fox News lists ten reasons why organic food is more expensive and below I have listed a few:

•  No chemicals=more labor
• Hire cost of fertilizer for organic crops
• Better living conditions for livestock
• Organic food grows slower
• Government subsidies- In 2008, $7.5 billion in subsidies for non-organic food and $15 million for organic

So, what’s this have to do with our class?

The organic food market interests me, and I wonder how does it relate to the tobacco industry back in the 50s or what’s going on today with climate change and sugary drinks?  Non-organic, unnatural, processed food is obviously unhealthy and makes people gain weight which contributes to a plethora of other health issues, but the “conventional, processed, unnatural” food industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.  I highly doubt they initiated the organic trend, so who did?

Before the beginning of “industrial agriculture” all food was organic.  According to Eco Tipping Points, the idea of organic food came into play in the early 20th century as an alternative to the “advances in various technologies such as biochemistry (the creation of nitrogen fertilizer), creation of the internal combustion engine, and development of hybrid seeds.”

Experienced, knowledgable, and morally sound farmers were always skeptical of the toxins.  Scientists and researchers spoke out and advocated for natural/organic food, but it wasn’t until 1989 that the public truly heard them.

Whole Foods describes February 25, 1989 as “Alar Sunday.” Researchers finally were able to broadcast to the public and announce that Alar, a synthetic growth toxin commonly used on apples, caused tumors in lab animals and could potentially cause cancer.  It was then the organic food industry really took off.

As it was with tobacco and sugary drinks, knowledgeable people had a gut feeling something was up with “industrial agriculture”, but the public didn’t get behind them until it science proved they were in harms way.  What does that say about us as a public?  Are we unable to listen to others unless it is proven and told to us that we are being directly affected?

It makes me think of climate change. 99% of the scientists who study climate change say that it is happening and is due to human behavior, but the thing about climate change is that no scientists can prove it for sure, without a reasonable doubt.  They can’t inject a monkey with copious amounts of tobacco or feed pesticide to mice to show people that they actually do cause cancer.  All the computer simulations in the world can’t physically and experimentally prove that climate change is happening.  We only have one earth.

It worries me to think that corporations have such little genuine interest for the public good.  The tobacco industry hid their evidence that smoking caused cancer and unhealthy food companies don’t want you to get healthier unless you’re buying their “reduced fat” product.  The corporations who benefit from the fossil fuel industry will do anything to create doubt within the public to convince them that climate change isn’t happening so we keep buying their cars and pumping gas.

Scientists need to become better communicators…or we, as a public, need to become better listeners and learn how to critically think.