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GAF, are Organic Foods a scam?
- Thread starter threetri333
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The main thing I like about Whole Foods over Safeway. Girls are way hotter than the ones at Safeway.
It (organic) may not be exponentially better health wise, however the selection of junk food is gone and that tends to make me purchase healthier items versus when I go to Safeway. Beer selection is also insanely better.
It (organic) may not be exponentially better health wise, however the selection of junk food is gone and that tends to make me purchase healthier items versus when I go to Safeway. Beer selection is also insanely better.
As a coffee guy, what she said. The organic bit was likely fairly meaningless. If anything, it may have primed people's opinions in favor of the organic coffee if you noted it beforehand.
As for the topic at hand, there are a lot of misconceptions as to what organic entails. USDA Organic meets certain standards, though it's far from perfect, and, as noted before, it doesn't mean produce is completely free of all pesticides, nor does it mean your food is hosed down with pesticides regardless (and there is a significant difference in terms of what kind of pesticides are used).
If you're looking for nutrition, it's fairly meaningless. If you're looking for flavor, buying seasonal and local will do more than buying just organic (though if you buy local, seasonal, organic produce, you're pretty much guaranteed to get better tasting produce provided it's ripe). If you're looking to feed 7 billion+ people purely on one methodology or another, it's not much of a contest. If you're looking at carbon emissions, it's pretty much a wash, as it's wholly dependent on what is grown where, when, how, and the manner of distribution.
All of these things are typically used to disparage organic food as a waste of money, and so forth. It's not -- if you know what the definition of organic is and you set your expectations accordingly (and when you start talking about animal products and byproducts, it can become fairly meaningless really fast).
Personally, I have little interest in being a guinea pig for widespread, industrial use of pesticides and the like on a daily basis (see Dennis' post). Inevitably, some of that crap will end up in all of our systems one way or another, but I'd like to minimize my exposure to it as much as possible. Life is a game of statistics and luck, and much for the same reason I avoid smoking on a regular basis, I'll stick to organic and minimally processed foods.
encephalon
Member
For the brand that I buy, organic tofu seems to taste much better, for what it's worth.
Kite
Member
This is a list of the fruits and vegetables with the most and least amount of pesticides. The ones listed as the dirtiest are the ones I will try to always buy the organic version when the wallet permits and the cleanest I won't bother.
Al-ibn Kermit
Junior Member
Something like honey is actually more carcinogenic than anything synthetic would be allowed to be under FDA standards. It just gets grandfathered in due to being a culturally common that food that people have been consuming for a long time.
But yes, you should be comfortable eating food that meets FDA standards. Unless you're actually saying that you don't trust the FDA to actually test and reject foods that are above the safe limits.
This is a list of the fruits and vegetables with the most and least amount of pesticides. The ones listed as the dirtiest are the ones I will try to always buy the organic version when the wallet permits and the cleanest I won't bother.
For any iOS users, you can also easily get this info via a great application called Harvest ($2.99 IIRC). It lists the pesticide residues, but also tells you when certain produce are in season, how to pick a good piece of produce, and how to store it. It's a great app and one I've relied on for years.
speculawyer
Member
Is designer clothing a scam?
Are high-priced fancy shoes a scam?
It is high-priced fancy food that isn't really better for you but people buy it for status or it makes them feel good but the effect is pretty much all placebo.
Are high-priced fancy shoes a scam?
It is high-priced fancy food that isn't really better for you but people buy it for status or it makes them feel good but the effect is pretty much all placebo.
Nothing1016
Member
I had to write a 15 page research essay on food and how it affects the economy. I interviewed 4 farmers, 3 of them said the only reason they do organic food is because they get paid more and didn't believe that the benefits were all that great compared to non-organic food. The other farmer didn't even grow organic food.
No, of course not. Crops treated with pesticides, livestock given antibiotics, and end products that have been fortified, have add preservatives added, or have been otherwise processed are miles better than organic shit.
Modern agriculture turns out the safest and highest-quality food ever seen in the entire history of mankind. Yet morons want to turn the clock back 500 years and ban the use of things they don't understand.
If you have a problem with a specific process, chemical, or whatever, by all means, show some statistically significant evidence. Then weigh that evidence against the cost of people not being able to afford food that doesn't make them shit themselves to death.
Shit is as dumb as being against vaccines.
That depends on what you perceive the 'effect' to be. There are tangible effects to buying organic, so calling it a placebo is only especially applicable if you, for example, perceive organic food to be tastier or more nutritious.
And of course farmers are going to do organic because of the higher prices, much in the same way that a farmer would plant a more profitable crop, organic or not, than an alternative one (e.g., coffee vs. bananas). That doesn't dismiss legitimate benefits to supporting organic methods.
ClassyPenguin
Banned
and with GMO's, even safer because they routinely test their products.
Can't believe that in 2013 people are still against GMO's. We have been eating them for decades with no ill effects.
Organic produce/fruit in grocery stores I do believe are a scam.
Organic produce/fruit bought at a farmer's market that's seasonal? not at all.
The freshness, the taste, everything about seasonal organic produce grown/bought locally absolutely destroys any other alternative.
I'm lucky that my city has a farmer's market every Tuesday from spring-fall.
Organic produce/fruit bought at a farmer's market that's seasonal? not at all.
The freshness, the taste, everything about seasonal organic produce grown/bought locally absolutely destroys any other alternative.
I'm lucky that my city has a farmer's market every Tuesday from spring-fall.
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