EnviroLink Forum

How do you feel about spots on your apples? In the early 1970s, Jodi Mitchell told us she preferred them to the DDT that was quickly gaining popularity as a pesticide in commercial farming.

Today, as a reaction to the hormones and other additives, pesticides and other chemicals, and genetic modification that are changing the face of the human-food relationship, a movement toward organic food is becoming broadly popular.

Organic farming is by no means limited to produce. Organic options are widely available for just about anything you put in your fridge or pantry: coffee and tea, chocolate, dairy (including milk, butter, and cheese), grains (breads, pasta, and cereals), seafood, meat, and meat alternatives (like tofu, legumes, and nuts), and even wine and beer, just to get you started.

Next, you can go organic in your bathroom by choosing all-natural soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and cosmetics. Organic certification even exists on clothing, furniture, gardening supplies, and bedding and other textiles.

As the availability of organics has spread, however, so has the controversy. Some question the validity of organic farming as an environmental movement, citing things like lower productivity and unchanged transportation and energy needs as a case against organics.

Another problem with the organic label is that it's easily faked or, more accurately, difficult to verify just by looking at your lettuce. Make sure whatever you're buying bears an official endorsement from an accredited, government-recognized organics organization.

Many critics also suggest that the price gap between organic and conventionally-produced goods reflects more of an economic avarice than a truly higher production cost in other words, that some companies or vendors will charge more for something with an organic label because they know they can.

As with everything else, you need to decide for yourself where you stand on this issue. Combining organic with initiatives like fair trade or local farming is a good way to increase the good you're doing.

Organic clothing is cool, if not due to the fact that it is organic than the style and way it's put together. As for food, never once have I had organic fruits and vegetables that weren't bland as all get out. Non-organic tastes better, spots or not. In fact, I consistently get the best from old guys that home grow, use fertilizer, and sell it out of the back of their pickup trucks. Organic tea and coffee are much better, IMO, meat can go either way, while cleaning and body care products don't seem to perform as well as their traditional versions.

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TANG SOO!

From a scientific standpoint, I have my doubts that organic is all it's cracked up to be. It is dubious as to whether it can feed the world:
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/ ... feed-world

I agree with Fosgate on this. I HATE organic fruits and veggies. They are indeed bland and not as good as regular produce. I love to eat sour green apples. I tried some organic Granny Smith's one time and it was flat and had no bite to it at all. And I'm not going to pay those kinds of prices for an inferior product. I do like organic milk. It tastes better to me than regular. Organic meat is also good. We buy a lot of locally raised organic buffalo that is outstanding. Organic coffee is good too.

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Vegetarian: Old Native American word meaning really bad hunter.

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Vegetarian: Old Native American word meaning really bad hunter.

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TANG SOO!

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TANG SOO!

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Vegetarian: Old Native American word meaning really bad hunter.

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Vegetarian: Old Native American word meaning really bad hunter.

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TANG SOO!

Grizz pretty much has it correct.
Organic milk comes from cows raised organically.
The calf may come from a non organic operation but must be raised organically.
Animals are fed only organically raised feed and are not treated with most modern non organic treatments.
(Although there used to be ways to feed non organic feed if you absolutely couldn't get organic feed, not sure if this was changed or not.)
There have been some changes made in the organic rules in order to stop big companies from cashing in, such as requiring more grazing but I don't see big corps being shut out too long.....if there's money to be made you'll see factory organic dairy farms still.
There's one down the road from me that milks several hundred...really shoots down the organic activists picture of a quaint little red barn with 5 or so cows being hand milked......

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Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow