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At this point, it's safe to say that our culture has officially gone green. "Organic" product labels are everywhere, from the grocery store ("organic chicken!") to the cosmetics counter ("organic lipstick!") to the fashion department ("organic cotton!"). But as this marketing campaign spreads to everyday nomenclature, do we average consumers even know what organic means? Or has it simply seeped into our minds as being synonymous with "better"?Click here to find out whether organic is really better for you.
What organic means
In simple terms, organic foods are "grown or raised without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides or hormones." Seems simple enough -- by going organic, we'll be eating foods that are more nutritious (no pesky chemicals have leaked into the apples, for instance) and at the same time, we'll be helping the environment and other animals.
But is it really better?
A recent study found no evidence supporting the belief that organic food has higher nutritional content. Research has also shown that organic foods carry a higher risk of food-borne illness than conventional foods, due to the lack of pesticides and use of manure as fertilizer. Pesticides do, indeed, provide a necessary function -- without them, fruits and vegetables will be consumed by insects and animals, decreasing our ever-important food supply. And fertilizers increase crop yields. In a time of global hunger, we're torn between our suspicion of chemicals and our concern for starvation rates in third-world countries. The guilt-trip factor
One thing is for sure -- the "good guy" connotation of organic foods is a helpful selling (and often guilt-inducing) technique for any product line. Consider the avocado: Organic varieties can retail for almost $4 each, but even the cheapest, non-organic avocados are basically chemical-free. And it's not just food -- Clorox has whipped up a green line of cleansers. Then there's organic milk -- it may not contain bovine growth hormones, but it can cost double the price of the regular stuff. All this misleading marketing has even led to a new buzzword -- "greenwashing." As young(ish) women without tons of cash to spare, we usually prefer junk-food guilt to shelling out extra dollars.
So, tell us: Does buying organic make you feel better/less guilty, or just a little poorer? Are certain "green" things worth the extra cash? Do you think organic labeling is more about marketing or health?
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Thursday 18 September
By Carol Hartsell
I agree that the word organic has become more of a catch-all marketing term that can sometimes disguise just as many problems as non-organic products. The greater issue, which addresses the concerns you mention about the global food crisis, is sustainability. Whole Foods sells organic products that have traveled thousands of miles to get to your table, using fossil fuels, cheap labor and putting small family farms out of business. I'm happy to pay more for wholesome food even if I don't have a lot of money, but I would rather pay it to a local farmer than Whole Foods. Big organic is just as counterproductive at this point as Big Industrial.
The more we support the farmers closest to us, the more we promote a healthy, self-sustaining community.
On top of that, our corn industry is in horrid disrepair, forcing farmers to grow as much as possible for the cheapest price, wearing down their soils and putting themselves out of business. We produce corn for everything from feeding cattle, which they do not eat naturally so we have to pump them with antibiotics so they can "stomach" it, to producing ethanol for our cars. Meanwhile, global poverty is at a devastating high.
My point is, we actually have to start putting MORE thought into the kinds of food we eat and how it's grown and where, rather than make excuses for going back to eating the hormone and fatty corn infused ground beef from Costco. I'm a vegetarian who is having to go back and rethink all of my choices based on a more nuanced world view than simply, "I don't feel ok about eating animals." Believe me, it sucks. But we no longer have the luxury of making excuses.
At the risk of making a suggestion that almost everyone in this kind of discussion makes, I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's extremely eye-opening and it addresses exactly what you're talking about here, as well as many other issues.
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