Organic
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[edit] Definition
Broadly, the word organic is used in a number of senses to indicate something having to do with life.
In chemistry, organic compounds are those compounds containing carbon (with the notable exception of carbon dioxide), so named because living cells are composed chiefly of carbon compounds and water. In law, an organic code is an original Constitution that "grew" out of the living populace.
In modern popular use, however, organic is used primarily to describe certain food making practices, and as a label for the foodstuffs created by those practices.
[edit] Discussion
Organic foods and farming practices are largely a product of the Naturalistic Fallacy combined with environmentalism.
The three most common claims made by promoters of switching to an organic-based agricultural system are that organic food is better for the environment, it is healthier, and it tastes better. There is insufficient evidence for any of these claims.
If all food were produced according to organic standards and not including vertical farming and other hydroponic techniques, it would require clear cutting of forests, since organic agriculture produces less food per acre than conventional agriculture. By this standard at least, organic agriculture may be considered worse for the environment than conventional agriculture.
[edit] Certified Organic
As of October 2002 in the United States, the U.S.D.A. enforces a certification process that foods must pass in order to be allowed to call themselves Organic. Among other requirements, the food must not have been grown with any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, must not have been genetically modified, and must not have been irradiated. Noteworthy is the fact that Certified Organic food is allowed to be grown with naturally-occurring fertilizers and pesticides.
[edit] Quotations
- "Monarch (butterfly) larvae are especially vulnerable to the chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in non-organic farming. If these chemicals spread to milkweed and other monarch foods, the larvae are weakened and often die. They do not mature into adult butterflies able to make their annual migration to their wintering grounds in Mexico. Organic farming practices pose no such threats to the monarch."
- -- from the back of a box of Annie's Mild Mexican Shells & Cheddar, a Certified Organic food
(They are referring to one study showing that, when faced with crops grown with low-nitrate fertilizers, Monarch butterfly larvae tend to eat more and grow somewhat larger. The study itself only claims that the impact this will have on the larva's survival in the wild is unknown -- not at all like the box's claim that "the larvae are weakened and often die." Their evidence that organic farming practices are harmless to the larvae is just as lacking.)
[edit] External Links
- Wikipedia article on organic certification
- Behind the Organic Label from the Los Angeles Times
