Is Organic Food a Hoax and Just a Marketing Scheme?

I think it makes a difference in some products, but not so much in others. We buy organic apples because we eat the peels, but I buy regular bananas because I don't eat the skins. I do try to buy organic milk and eggs. I just read an article in the Costco magazine (Jan 2015) about the "organic milk and butter" that make up the Costco Kirkland brand. To raise certified organic cows, no hormones or antibiotics can ever be used. The cows must to fed 100% organic feed, and they must always have access to the outdoors. The land on which they are raised must also be certified organic, meaning it cannot be treated with synthetic pesticides and herbicides, or contain GMO grasses and it must adhere to a 3 year transition rule, pertaining to use prior.

I used to think it wasn't worth it but I've done a full 180. I'd buy everything organic if I could but for now, I focus on the dirty dozen due to cost factors. It's just common sense that ingesting pesticides isn't good for the body. I didn't care so much until I had a child and realized that the amount of pesticides in relation to his smaller body size made it that much more dangerous for him than for an adult. If you do research, you'll probably start to see why people are willing to pay more for organic.

My father died of pancreatic cancer when he was 46. He was a farmer and worked at the height of the development of new herbicides and pesticides. Research does show a connection. This link is a legitimate site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2674312/

I choose organics when possible and eat food in season. I may have a higher risk of this cancer due to my father's case, but I also am concerned about the people who work on farms and also the long term effects on the environment. I live in an agricultural community and I know first had the effects that certain kinds of farming can have on the community and the workers

Well a "hoax" would be something that doesn't exist. Food grown without chemicals does exist and until a few decades ago, that was the norm.

I buy organic when possible for many reasons:

1) It helps support sustainable agriculture. I'd rather pay more so that smaller, more responsible farms can stay in business and fight the agricultural giants, who produce food in ways that contaminate the soil, deplete its nutrients, and put profits way above safety and sustainability.

2) I don't want my children - or myself - ingesting pesticide residues

3) I don't want my children - or myself - ingesting GMOs and often, buying organic is the only way to ensure that packaged foods aren't made with GMO corn, artificial colors, preservatives, etc.

4) I like my food to be living. I like to know that if it's not consumed in a timely manner, it will rot the way it's supposed to. I like that my organic potatoes, onions and garlic sprout themselves if I leave them too long. A commercially-grown potato is sterilized. An organic potato can grow another potato plant...would you rather eat produce that's dead or produce that's alive with nutrients?

5) I recently made the switch to organic, responsibly raised meats and poultry and will only eat wild-caught seafood. The expense difference is huge, but really...meat shouldn't be cheap. Expensive meat means that we eat less of it (a good thing) and that there is much less waste. If I'm paying $14 for a roaster chicken, I can assure that we are going to eat every bite of it and freeze any leftovers, then I'm going to boil those bones down and make some broth, which I'm going to cook with scraps of chicken, turkey and veggies to make soup. No waste. When food is cheap, it's not valued and it's wasted.

of course it makes a difference. i'm so tired of all the monsanto-based ads claiming 'studies show that non-organic tomatoes are just as healthy as organic ones!'
those studies do NOT study how much pesticide is being ingested, and we are part of a very long-term experiment as to how generations of poisoned soil and food will affect us as a species.
you can cut costs by going directly to your local farmers and asking them about their practices. there are a surprisingly number of awesome, ethical farmers near us who are very candid. many have not taken the expensive and exhaustive track of becoming certified organic, but do either no or low spray on their crops. and as one gal told me 'if you're in danger of losing your entire crop, you bite the bullet and spray. but we always disclose, and adjust the pricing.'
it's hard to really suss out the benefits from one person, or from looking at short-term results. in my case we've raised two healthy kids to healthy adulthood, and in our mid-50s the ol' man and i are going strong too. that's the best we can hope for.
your own bias is clear in referring to organic as a 'craze.' what's 'crazed' to me is feeding your kids poisons and believing it won't have any effects.
ETA what's a hoax is putting out there that selective breeding is the same thing as GMO. breeding for desirable traits and inserting non-species genes are a world apart.
khairete
S.

Organic is worth it, both in terms of your own health, and in terms of the health of the overall environment. Think about traditional farming, and the fact that tons of Roundup is used, and then makes its way into the groundwater. Think about all the pesticides used in traditional farming. You really don't want to consume that stuff if you can help it.

Raising food organically makes a HUGE difference to the environment. Intensive farming methods have a much larger carbon footprint, add toxins/pesticides/herbicides and tons of petroleum based fertilizers to the environment and waste huge amounts of energy. Raising food locally and organically is much much better for our planet and for us. Whether it is healthier to eat? Sometimes yes, sometimes probably not a big difference. But better for the earth - absolutely no question at all.

ETA - I know what is in my water. My borough tests it twice a year and sends a report to all residents - bacterial types and counts, chemicals and concentrations.

ETA: There are strict definitions for what constitutes organic and organizations for certification. So, no you can be sure what 'they did to it'. And if it is organic, it cannot be GMO. (of course there could be cheating just like with medications and car safety etc but it is likely rare).

ETA: Julie S. Are you even familiar with the process organic farms need to go through to be certified organic? It's crazy hard. That's why they have tiny farms and sell 20 heads per year. And, I don't care what you're frowing in your back yard--you're most likely using seeds with around Up already in them. Can't hardly buy seeds that don't. So unless you're seeking them out? Don't be so sure...

ETA: Google "factory farms." Bet you never look at the meat in your supermarket the same way again.

Are you aware of the poison we ingest everyday from GMOs?
Short story--there is ROUND UP (pesticide) in our food and in the food grown to feed the animals we eat.
All done in the name of healthier food crops, more plentiful food crops.
And still, there are people hungry every day.
There still is no GMO labeling here.
I think we all deserve to know what we're eating, don't you?

No.

Learn about the current state of farming - look at how livestock is raised and Monsanto's hold on agriculture and you'll be so grossed out you'll never eat mainstream again. Nauseating.

It's not a craze and it's not new, it's how people used to eat, back in the days before chemicals and hormones and other additives.
So I guess it comes down to how much you care about this stuff going into your body. My mom is a life long heavy smoker (age 65) and doesn't have cancer so as far as she's concerned smoking isn't necessarily bad for you, and she doesn't buy into the hype either.
I decided at age 20 I didn't want to inhale that stuff every day.
Eat/ingest/inhale what you want and live with the consequences.

I wouldn't call it a "hoax" because organic foods actually do exist, and they do have some benefit. That said, I definitely think the word and label "organic" can be used as a marketing scheme to make people feel better about eating or feeding their children food that has essentially no nutritional value.

Like if you give your child organic juice and Annie's organic graham crackers as a snack, you've essentially fed them foods with very little nutrient value. IMO you'd be better off giving them a banana and a piece of cheese (unpackaged foods), whether it's organic or not.

Organic milk is a complete marketing scheme to make people think they are eating a more healthful diet. In truth, the vast majority of organic milk is "super pasteurized", which means it is boiled for over 10 minutes. That kills off any probiotics in the drink. They only reason companies do this is to make the milk more shelf stable (longer shelf life). IMO, non-organic milk that is rBST-free (bovine growth hormone) and low-temp pasteurized is a better choice, and many brands are rBST now anyway.

As far as pesticides left on veggies and fruits, there is a handy list called "The dirty dozen and the clean fifteen", which lists the fruits and veggies likely to be highest in pesticide residue (apples top the list) and those that are pretty much without pesticide residue even when non-organic (onions top that list).

If you are worried about cost, I would focus on going for organic fruit and veggies off the dirty dozen list, and grass-fed meat if that's an option. I would also avoid preservatives, food dyes, and any chemicals added to food to change texture or taste (artificial flavor or emulsifiers, etc).

Good luck! :)

ETA: As far as whether organic foods "do any good", it's more that the ingestion of chemicals (combined with environmental exposure and genetic predisposition) can increase your rick of serious illness. People who eat whole foods without much preparation (not packaged goods), exercise, and have low stress tend to be healthier later in life. Limiting your exposure to environmental toxins in your diet helps the cause too, but it's just one element of an overall healthy lifestyle.

I never thought it was a hoax, but I did question if it was necessary. But a marketing hoax? Show me a cancer patient who was not put on an organic diet. No its a marketing hoax. "all natural" is a marketing hoax, but not organic. We can split hairs on what organic does and does not mean. We garden organically and no it does not mean we don't use any chemicals. Some chemicals are harmful. others are not. Others we don't really know.

You may or may not feel the difference, but its more about disease prevention than feeling good. If you are looking to feel better, thats more about eliminating or reducing the things your body does not thrive on as readily as minimally processed plants, such as dairy, meat, sugar, alcohol, processed oils and processed foods.

But yes, our incidence of cancer has more than doubled over the last several decades. And we have not precisely determined why. It stands to reason that modern farming practices are playing a role.
And as far as concentration of chemicals in our food, they concentrate in the dairy and the meat of the grain fed animals. So merely washing your fruit and veg is not going to cut it. Not to mention what makes its way into the soil and becomes systemic.

If you have been eating both, you can very easily tell the difference between organic and non-organic produce. Organic food rots faster, is less visually attractive, tastes better, is more nutritious. Non-organic food lasts longer, is more visually perfect, contains more chemical contaminants from the soil to the seeds of fruit/vegetable itself.

Organically fed and grown meats have less chemicals and contaminants in their food and no chemicals and antibiotics shot into the animals.

The organic food is much more expensive due to these things. There are many expenses in this process, especially since the big food industries don't want them to get a leg up. There is more waste due to shorter shelf life, etc. But the more organic you buy, the more people produce it and the less it will cost. There have been big improvements in price the past few years. I can get organic produce at Wegman's for about the same cost as regular produce in other stores.

Of course eating food that is more healthily grown makes it much healthier. The people who don't believe that are usually people who aren't all that concerned with nutrition in general.

Is organic food more expensive. Yes everything "better" in stores from clothes to cars to homes....costs more. We cut our budget in other areas in order to buy organic food. I have friends who spend a fortune on video games, movies, processed foods, meat, restaurants and shopping who claim they can't afford organic.

Some people really can't afford organic. People who really can't afford groceries and other basics. And I hope the costs continue to go down for that reason. Everyone deserves access to healthy food.

If you study the topic you will see it is not at all a fake craze. There are lots of good books and documentaries about it.

Have you ever tasted the difference between organic milk and regular milk? It's HUGE.

I don't buy into it. I realize some people live by it and if it makes them think they are eating that much better, so be it.

We eat healthy, fresh foods. I don't go cheap with our food choices, I shop smartly. I don't seek out organic products. I do believe it is a huge marketing program ( just like BPA) and bring in more revenue for the store.

But... That's just my opinion! Everyone needs to do what they believe is right for their own family.

I would just love to correct a lot of misconceptions I see posted here but I just want to make one point, I grow organic but have never in my life sought out an organic product. Taking into account nothing is organic it kind of seems silly.

Sure you can set out to do things organically but if I were to tell you there is nothing on the produce I grow I would be delusional. I can't control the rain. I can't even control what was the use of my backyard before it was my backyard. I mean do you really think a farmer decides to be organic, poof, everything is organic?

Yet millions of people buy into this idea.

Nearly everything we eat that is grown is a GMO, I suppose we are GMOs. Survival of the fittest and all of that. I doubt there is one single organism that is in the original form. Oddly most of the people that believe the most that GMOs are unnatural are the same that tell Christians that evolution is the only true science. So which is it, did we evolve mixing our genes with others who had traits that ensured our survival or are we the same being that was created? So do you think plants are any different.

Anything we eat has been genetically modified over time. Honestly looking at what the Bradford Pear is doing to the environment here I will take my chances with Monsanto

Okay, kind of rambled back to why people are wrong...

I also want to add looking at a lot! of answers people don't seem to know the difference between homegrown and organic yet people are saying I don't know what I am talking about, okay then. How old are producing say, apple trees, oranges? Do you really think those same orchards aren't saturated with pesticides from before they wanted to double their profits? Does that really sound organic just because now they don't spray, even though those chemicals saturate the soil, are part of the trees from years of being sprayed but yes, lets call those apples organic and waste our money.

I could spray the crud out of my backyard and then put my tomatoes side by side with your organic and you would not know the difference, homegrown is not organic!

I don't notice a difference in fruits and veggies for the most part, but I really do in the meat. Organic, no hormones added, free range, grass fed, they just taste better. We hunt for most our red meat so I have always been able to taste the difference, the way factory raised beef has a chemical taste (some of that comes from the ammonia wash they give it to help with the e-coli that forms from them eating corn/feed rather then grass as nature intended). Since switching to organic chicken I can now, more then ever, notice a similar chemical aftertaste in factory farmed chicken. The fact that the animals are also living a more natural and less cruel life are just another bonus. I also buy organic milk and eggs. If I am baking I will use non-organic eggs sometimes, but for frying or boiling the organic ones just taste richer, the entire family prefers them.

"Is organic food a hoax and just a marketing scheme?"

Yes

Organic def
- of, relating to, or derived from living matter.

As the marketing skew would have it - it's suppose to mean 'good for you'.
But it's not necessarily so.
Just means they do less to it and charge you more for it.
And even then - you're still not sure exactly what they've done to it.
Can it be organic and genetically modified at the same time?
Maybe.

The only way to be sure - is to grow your own.

http://www.rd.com/slideshows/13-things-you-didnt-know-abo...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/0...

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,###-##...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-o...

Sorry guys - I'm not buying the hype and I'm not buying the product.

Do you have any idea what's in your ground water?
Whether you are on well water or city water - you're not getting just H2O.

With vegetables and fruits, I just wash them super well to remove any pesticides - and I feel pretty comfortable doing that. My sister even washes them in mild soap and rinses super well (I don't go that far). I was grocery store, and they wanted double for an organic cucumber. I just couldn't do it. I just scrub.

My concern is more with meat. If I could find a local meat producer of organic meat I would go for that - they have them in the summers at a local market. The reason being - I do sometimes worry about all the growth hormones, the antibiotics, etc. they give animals. And they we ingest it.

I think animals who end up as organic meat have nicer lives on the whole (from what I understand ... more room, eat better food, etc.).

Marketing.
But if it makes you feel healthier go for it.
I purchase 100's of pounds of fruit a month for a company in Austin. This is so that the employees always have fresh fruit to snack on.

I have purchased organic if it was a really good price, but not one person cared or noticed the difference except that they rotted faster and the employees will not eat anything with a bruise.. I know, Ridiculous. . As long as you wash your fruit, you get the same nutrition. All you have to do is soak in in water, yes you can use vinegar, but it is not needed.

I know people worry about all sorts of chemicals to protect the fruit from insects etc.. But I do not have time to worry about all of that. Our family health history is really good with the exception of those that smoked..
So I will stick with that.

Eat well, budget for food, even better grow some food.