Organic Food: What's The Buzz All About?
In today’s modern society, just stepping into the supermarket can leave your mind boggled and confused with several labels, descriptions, and special words used to identify products: Organic, non-GMO, free-range, eco friendly and the list goes on, but what do all of these mean?
This is why I will first go through what these words mean so that we can keep on track with the topic and understand all of the content thoroughly. I don't want to be confusing commonly misunderstood words such as "Organic" and "Non-GMO" for each other since they mean different things, which is why we have to first define them to avoid any confusion.
In this article specifically, I will be focusing on "organic" food, and more specifically whether it actually carries the promised benefits or it is all just a marketing fad used to promote more customer spending.
WHAT EVEN IS ORGANIC?
Although each country has its own regulations and standards for what can be classed as "organic", we can generally define organic food as:
Food that is produced in the absence of man-made fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, growth enhancers, and chemically additives. It excludes Genetically modified Organisms (GMO) and promotes food production that is more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable in the long term.
In terms of animals, livestock is not fed antibiotics or growth hormones, as well as needing to have access to the outdoors for grazing.
While all of these things sound great for both environmental and health concerns, research and opinions are mixed about whether these "magical" foods carry as many benefits as they get praise for. This is what we will be discussing in more detail, below.
DO NOT CONFUSE ORGANIC WITH…
NON-GMO:
A Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), is an organism, either plant, animal, or microorganism, whose genetic makeup has been altered through laboratory practices and experiments, in order to produce an organism with more desirable characteristics. these characteristics can mean a better appearance, a more appealing taste, being more nutritious, or becoming more resistant to disease.
Even-though foods advertised as being "healthy", often have both labels such as "Organic" and "Non-GMO", they are not the same things, since Non-GMO does not follow the same farming and raising practices.
While GMO's have their list fo benefits, people have also expressed concerns towards them, such as:
Increased rate of allergic reactions
They could possibly promote the development of cancers
Their ability to be more resistant to herbicides, which leads to more herbicide being sprayed, which ultimately means we consume more herbicides
ECO FRIENDLY:
While this one most commonly refers to non-food products, it can nevertheless still be found on food labels. Eco friendly simply means that it is good for the environment, in terms of encouraging practices that conserve energy, limits resources, tries to decrease waste production, as well as not contributing to water, air, and land pollution.
FREE RANGE:
The term "free-range" refers to a style of raising livestock and animals that assures that animals have access to outdoor space either for movement or for grazing.
Although the regulation for "free-range" food differs for every country, food labels like "free-range" do not always guarantee that animals are actually "free-range", so you have to double-check the practices of the producer or farmer to be certain.
ORGANIC IN NUMBERS
Since the 1900s, organic food consumption has been increasing for about 20% each year, with also more land becoming dedicated to growing organic food.
In 2018, the total sales of organic food have amounted up to 95 billion USD.
So far in the year 2020, more than 60 billion USD has been spent on organic foods.
The largest markets for organic food are found in the US; Germany and France, with the biggest consumers of organic products being Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland.
CURRENT NUTRITIONAL BELIEFS
Since organic food has been and is on the rise of consumption, what makes people want to buy it more? What are these convincing factors, which may or may not be true at all?
Some of the currently believe and potentially promised benefits of organic food include:
Better nutritional profile
The lower presence of pesticides in food, that makes it safer to eat
Better taste compared to conventional food
Perhaps an improved nutritional profile with a higher nutrient content
Better animal welfare
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
ACTUAL BENEFITS OF BUYING ORGANIC
FEWER PESTICIDES:
The majority of research studies have concluded that organic food indeed does contain and is sprayed with fewer pesticides, as is part of the organic food guidelines, but that does not mean that organic food contains no pesticides. Pesticides are still in organic food, there is just less of them and they come in different natural varieties that are not chemically or synthetically based.
For example, researchers in a study from a couple of years ago looked and analyzed over 94,000 food samples and found that on average, organic food contains one third as many pesticides as conventional food.
On the topic of pesticides, it is true that conventional foods contain a higher level of them, but many still do not cross the line of being "unhealthy" or bad for our health. The question that follows however is if long terms consumption of standard levels of pesticides is unsafe or harmful to our health, as a result of a build-up of pesticides in our body through time.
Many scientists do think that long term pesticide exposure and consumption can be harmful to us, as literally pesticides are designed to kill (small) organisms. However, we also have to consider the accumulation of pesticides in our environment such as our soil and water, which further goes into the growth of new plants that are further sprayed with pesticides, and the cycle repeats.
Therefore we have to view the issue in terms of how it impacts our health and what kind of consequence it will have on our environment, as we critically depend on both for our survival.
For your convenience, below I have made a list of the produce that has been shown to have the greatest concentration of pesticides. Whether organic or not, it is most recommended that you thoroughly wash these fruits and vegetables, and still consume them as apart of a healthy and balanced diet:
Leafy greens
Strawberries
Peaches
Berries
Grapes
Pears
Apples
Celery
Green peas
BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:
It is by no doubt that true that organic food that by default contains fewer pesticides which in turn leads to less pesticide buildup in our soils and eventually means that we ingest fewer pesticides - meaning its also better for our health.
Organic farming is said to contribute to soil of higher and healthier quality, reducing erosion - a critical issue in today’s farming, improving water pollution in rivers by preventing eutrophication, and generally encouraging greater biodiversity among plants and animals.
The reason why these environmental benefits of organic farming sound so promising, is because it has been shown that farming of conventionally grown food contributes to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and increasingly more water pollution due to the leaking of fertilizers and pesticides.
On the other hand, a safety concern about organic food has arisen, debating whether using manure as a fertilizer is safe to use for humans, since it may increase the spread of harmful bacteria such as E. coli. Many studies however have shown that through comparisons of organic and non-organic foods, organic foods tend to have fewer numbers of bacteria on them, especially harmful bacteria.
Even though all of this sounds great in a perfect world we would all be practicing organic farming and consuming more organic foods but that is just not the reality. While promoting organic for the longterm is more sustainable for our planet, organic farming is harder to achieve or to make it a standard of farming, simply because of its lower yields, greater usage of water, and the need for more land for growing.
BETER ANIMAL WELAFERE:
Organic farming has indeed been shown to contribute to animal welfare and ensure that through organic standards, animals are given suitable movement space, organic and Non-GMO feed, fresh air, and are generally "raised in conditions that suit their natural behavior", as was stated by the Soil Association.
Meat and animal products that fall under the organic regulation also contain minimal to no antibiotics and growth hormones, since in theory organically raised livestock is not allowed to be routinely fed antibiotics; only in the case that the animal is sick.
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ORGANIC FOOD
BETTER NUTRITION PROFILE:
In terms of the nutritional profile of organic food, there have been studies that have found that organic produce does not necessarily contain more micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, but is predominantly richer in polyphenols and antioxidants.
The reason for this is that because the plants are not sprayed with synthetic pesticides, they have no external protection against pests from pesticides, meaning that the plants have to produce their own chemicals for warding off pests. And these chemicals happen to be antioxidants - molecular substances that have been shown to be good for our health, cells, and preventing skin aging, by reducing oxidative stress. This way, researchers found that in comparison to conventional food, organic produce can contain up to as much as 40% more antioxidants, meaning that it is better for our health.
Either way, whether organic or conventional, it is best to eat our produce when it is fresh, as otherwise certain nutrients such as vitamin C can start oxidizing and lose their health benefits as well as their fresh taste over time
"If you want to get the most from your food, eat it while it's fresh."
BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:
Even though I have previously mentioned, organic farming does offer some environmental benefits such as reduced water pollution and less soil erosion, the strict regulation for organic food also brings about many disadvantages to the environment.
Primarily, organic farming has been shown to contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions which we all know contribute to global warming. For example, organic milk and dairy products have been shown to not be very environmentally conscious, as based on the Study of Life Cycle Assessments in the United Kingdom, found that "A liter of organic milk requires 80 percent more land than conventional milk to produce, has 20 percent greater global warming potential, releases 60 percent more nutrients to water sources, and contributes 70 percent more to acid rain".
On the topic of greenhouse gases, animals are also to blame here, where organically raise livestock produces twice as much methane as conventional farmed cows and chickens are close to that number as well. Raising organic cattle comes at a slightly lower greenhouse emission value, where they produce about 12% more of these gases in comparison to conventional cattle.
Here it is also important to consider the contribution that fossil fuels have to greenhouse gas emissions, where it has been found several times that farming equipment used for organic produce most commonly runs on fossil fuels, which just like any other fossil fuel, contributes to air pollution.
It is generally observed that organic production uses up more energy, more water, produces lower harvest yields, and requires more land space. For example, in terms of yields, a hectare of conventionally farmed land produces 2.5 times more potatoes than its conventional competitor. In the United Kingdom where tomatoes are most commonly grown in greenhouses, the organic yields are up to 75% less than conventionally grown tomatoes, while needing twice as much energy to be grown.
All in all, while organic produce does have a positive impact on the environment, we have to also be aware that organic food can act as a double-edged sword, where it also has environmental downsides.
SUPERIOR TASTE:
Based on a 2016 study done by the Pew Research center, it was discovered that upon asking supermarket shoppers the question "Why do you buy organic", about 30% said that they buy it for the better taste but interestingly about 60% said that in their opinion organic and conventional food taste about the same.
So is it true that organic tastes better? Let’s take a look.
In terms of the taste, if organic food is said to taste better it is most likely because the food is usually more fresh at the store, meaning there is less time between harvest and selling. This by no doubt makes a difference in taste since everyone can tell apart when a piece of fruit or vegetable is fresh or not.
However just because a food is grown and labeled as organic, it does not mean that it automatically tastes better; Taste is predominantly determined by the organism’s genetic makeup. Meaning that if you take a bland tasting species of tomatoes and grow them in organic conditions, at the end of the day they will still taste like bland tomatoes.
CONCLUSIVE ADVICE
Buying organic may not be a priority for everyone, so it will depend on your personal preferences and choices; precisely, what you value most. For example, if you are concerned with consuming pesticides, then eating organic may be your best choice, however, if animal welfare is not the first on your list of priorities, then you may have to look for a different option.
Besides personal choice, there is also the factor of price, where based on research done by the USDA, organic food can cost 10-30% more than conventional food, which can make it an expensive investment in the long run, especially for a large family. If you would still like to buy more organic food, that does not mean that all of your products have to be bought organic, but simply choosing to buy some products as organic may be a smart move for you and your wallet.
Generally speaking, if you choose not to purchase as much organic food, it is always good advice to wash your produce before eating it and also choosing to buy in-season products that are both good for your wallet and the planet, due to smaller transporting distances.
Either way, at the end of the day it comes down to personal choice. Both conventional and organic have advantages and disadvantages, so it all really is based on personal choice and your lifestyle.
