Organic or 'conventional'?

[trekkiedane]

I've just asked a fellow T-BBSer for a recipe and this started us talking about organic produce and products and the reasons for choosing these.

Personally I'm not religious about it, but I do buy the organic product whenever I have the choice.

The reasons I buy organic are:

• I believe we have a responsibility to future generations; they too should live in a bio-diverse world where they can actually drink from wells and streams without fear of poisoning themselves (or indeed: a need to clean industrial waste out of our water supply).
• It usually tastes better than 'conventional' products.
• when given a choice, lab-animals eat organic and who are we to argue with nature?
• Organic products contain more of the nutritionally desirable compounds and less of the nutritionally undesirable compounds.
• Organic produce isn't dipped in poison-wax; you don't need to peel off the outer layer and can even use the peels in your cooking without any danger to yourself!

How about you? -how organic do you live? -why?/why not?

 

[Mr. B]

I can't afford to shop at Whole Foods and I don't believe there is any real benefit to buying "organic" food. I do buy local produce and seafood when the opportunity presents itself, though.

 

[TerokNor]

I buy sometimes organic vegetables/fruit. If I had more money I´d buy it only, but I cannot afford it at the moment.

Meat I don´t buy at all (but if I would only bio-meat), eggs I only and always buy bio-eggs. Other eggs I could not shallow. They are more expensive too, therefore I only buy like 6 eggs a month, so I can afford only buying bio-eggs.
I cannot do that with veggies though..cause then I´d have nothing to eat.

I like buying organic and biologial better, because of the responsibility for the future generations, the planet, the animals, especially also the animals who "produce" things for us to eat (they should be treated fair and I just cannot eat anything when I know the animal suffered so much that you would not wsh your worst enemy that suffering).

TerokNor

 

[trekkiedane]

/.../ the animals who "produce" things for us to eat (they should be treated fair and I just cannot eat anything when I know the animal suffered so much that you would not wsh your worst enemy that suffering).

I can't believe I forgot to put animal welfare in my list
Apparently it's not the thing I think of when talking food

 

[Jadzia]

I buy some organic things. All of my pulses and herbs are organically grown, and they do taste significantly better than their non-organic equivalents. But for fruits and vegetables I'm not too fussy either way. I find they don't taste much different. Some of my teas are organic; some are not, and again there's not a significant difference in flavour.

I would prefer food to be grown organically -- that's an ideal to me -- but I'm often not sufficiently motivated to choose organic options.

The ideal is driven by how I think humanity should live: in harmony with the natural world, rather than through gradual obliteration of it. I don't particularly like heavy use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers, but it seems to be a necessary evil for global food production at the present time.

 

[Mary Ann]

I buy organic whenever I can. The only meat I buy is free range (which is usually, but not always, organic), so because of the cost we only eat meat once or twice a week. I find organic food usually tastes better, especially when I buy stuff from the weekly farmer's market. My husband is a keen gardener and the only chemical he uses in the garden is slug and snail pellets. Last year the little buggers ate almost all our lettuce and tomatoes, so we had no choice but to wage chemical warfare as none of the environmentally friendly methods worked.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I view 'organic' as nothing more than a marketing scheme. The propaganda of the day is that anything "natural" is automatically good, and anything artificial is evil; I refuse to be suckered in by that.

 

[cultcross]

As there is no evidence that organic farming is better for the environment, and a mounting suggestion that it may in fact be a worse contributor to global warming than conventional agriculture, I have no particular inclination to buy organic. I am far more concerned by things like food miles than I am by organic/non-organic. Whenever possible (i.e. produce that can be grown/made in the south west of England), I will spend a bit more or go out of my way to buy local.

Given the current financial climate though, it is likely that I may soon no longer be able to afford to do so.

 

[Mary Ann]

^You have a good point regarding food miles, cultcross. The farmers' market I frequent sells only local produce, so walk away poorer but feeling very smug. I agree that it's better to buy conventional local apples than organic apples from the other side of the world.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have no problem buying local - I just go to the store I work at.

 

[trekkiedane]

I view 'organic' as nothing more than a marketing scheme. The propaganda of the day is that anything "natural" is automatically good, and anything artificial is evil; I refuse to be suckered in by that.

While I did ask for opinions in my OP I had rather hoped for informed ones.

As there is no evidence that organic farming is better for the environment, and a mounting suggestion that it may in fact be a worse contributor to global warming than conventional agriculture, I have no particular inclination to buy organic.

Oh, but there are! (start reading here.)

I am far more concerned by things like food miles than I am by organic/non-organic. Whenever possible (i.e. produce that can be grown/made in the south west of England), I will spend a bit more or go out of my way to buy local.

Just this Saturday I went to the local 'farmer's market' where I had the choice of locally grown tomatoes (it's winter here, darnit!) or organic ones from Spain... which ones would you buy -those that are grown conventionally in heated green-houses or those that come from thousands of kilometers away?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I view 'organic' as nothing more than a marketing scheme. The propaganda of the day is that anything "natural" is automatically good, and anything artificial is evil; I refuse to be suckered in by that.

While I did ask for opinions in my OP I had rather hoped for informed ones.

I do consider that informed. I didn't mean to imply I would never buy organic, just that I wouldn't *always* buy it, out of some misbegotten notion that everything organic is always better.

 

[trekkiedane]

I view 'organic' as nothing more than a marketing scheme. The propaganda of the day is that anything "natural" is automatically good, and anything artificial is evil; I refuse to be suckered in by that.

While I did ask for opinions in my OP I had rather hoped for informed ones.

I do consider that informed. I didn't mean to imply I would never buy organic, just that I wouldn't *always* buy it, out of some misbegotten notion that everything organic is always better.

"I view 'organic' as nothing more than a marketing scheme." Doesn't come across as a very informed opinion though. Sounds more like something my dad would have said twenty years ago just because it was 'newfangled'.

I do however agree totally about not everything artificial being bad -or even 'evil'.

 

[Sephiroth]

you guys actualy BUY meat? it's called hunting, people

as for organic produce, make it affordable and more available and I'd buy more

 

[cultcross]

Just this Saturday I went to the local 'farmer's market' where I had the choice of locally grown tomatoes (it's winter here, darnit!) or organic ones from Spain... which ones would you buy -those that are grown conventionally in heated green-houses or those that come from thousands of kilometers away?

Well here pretty much all tomatoes are grown in greenhouses because we don't really have the climate for it, but that's by the by. In general, I would prefer something grown locally, even under artificial conditions, to something shipped in from thousands of kilometres away. The carbon cost of packaging, transport at both ends, the main journey, preserving the food during the trip, resulting increased waste etc. is enormous, and I'd have a hard time believing that running a greenhouse is worse than repeating that process over and over again to replenish stocks.

Obviously, this can't always be followed. However hard you try, there are some things the West Country will just not support. But, for example, in Sainsbury's I am faced with a choice of mushrooms from down the road in Somerset or mushrooms from Spain. You'll be pleased to know the Somerset ones are even organic

 

[trekkiedane]

you guys actualy BUY meat? it's called hunting, people

True, but that just makes it even more expensive!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

When the organic stuff costs 50-100% more than the non-organic, it seems like a pretty shitty deal. I'm not made of money.

 

[trekkiedane]

you guys actualy BUY meat? it's called hunting, people

True, but that just makes it even more expensive!

Besides, where do you hunt chicken?

 

[Holdfast]

I don't have any environmental qualms either way, so I certainly don't seek out organic food per se. I think the bread and eggs I sometimes buy at a local cafe/deli happen to be organic, but I buy them because I like the taste of the food there. Same goes for some of the chicken and other bits and pieces I buy elsewhere; I'm not sure, but I think some of them may be organic. So I guess you could call me an occasional inadvertant organic consumer.

 

[trampledamage]

^You have a good point regarding food miles, cultcross. The farmers' market I frequent sells only local produce, so walk away poorer but feeling very smug. I agree that it's better to buy conventional local apples than organic apples from the other side of the world.

I read an article a while about about the environmental impact of food and their conclusion was to look for things in this order

1) Local organic
2) Local non-organic
3) Non-local organic
4) Non-local non-organic.

So that's what I try for these days.

Root vegetables are the ones you really want to try and buy organiic because the chemicals from the farming leach into the roots and with root veg that's what you're eating.