To Eat or Not To Eat
Organic Food
By Astrid Avalos-Rosales
WRITING THE RESEARCH PAPER
ENGLISH 103.0862
PROF. STEVEN KARL
11/24/2008
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To Eat or Not to Eat Organic Food
Since the beginning of life every specie on earth has chosen its own food. What
to eat was an important decision because choosing the wrong food could end up in
disastrous results such as, poisoning or even death. Nowadays the figure is not that
different. Humans have thousands of food’s choices on the market, but this, instead of
help, makes the decision of what and how to choose our food more and more difficult.
Selecting the right food may become easier if we get to know more about the
types of food available today. For example, the two main groups of food, by its
production, are conventional food and organic food. Conventional food is the one
produce through conventional farming. According to Debra Miller, in conventional
farming “the goal is to squeeze as much production out of the land as possible in the
most efficient way, in order to maximize profits… Conventional farmers do not try to
build up the soil with healthy plant nutrients for long-term production, but instead apply
chemicals fertilizers containing nutrients that the crops can utilize immediately. Other
chemicals are used as herbicides and pesticides to discourage weeds, disease, and
insect damage... There is no effort to fit the conventional farm into the natural
environment; instead, conventional farmers seek to control and alter the natural world in
order to increase human food production” (12). In the other hand, organic food “is
produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the
conservation of the soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future
generations. Organic meat, poultry eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are
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given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most
conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge;
bioengineering; or ionizing radiation” (Grover 167).
Due to the increase of organic products consumption, there was the need to
create standards to regulate the organic production. In the United States, for instance,
the Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Organic Food Production Act
“establish uniform national standards for the production and handling of foods labeled
as organic” (NAL). According to these standards, the USDA “permits four types of
organic labeling, depending on the percentage of the organic content. 100% organic,
products that contain all organically produced ingredients may carry the USDA Organic
Seal, organic, products made from at least 95 percent organic ingredients and have
remaining ingredients that are approved for use in organic production may also carry
the USDA Organic Seal, made with organic ingredients, products that contain at least
70 percent organic ingredients; up to three organic ingredients may be listed on the
product’s front packaging but the product cannot carry the USDA Organic Seal, and
products with less than 70 percent organic ingredients, however, may only list the
organic ingredients in small type in the ingredient listing on the product’s side panel, no
organic claim can be made on the front of the product packaging and the product
cannot display the USDA Organic Seal” (Miller 24-25).
The growing market of organic products brought up a very concerning issue: that
the chemicals and pesticides found in conventional food may be harmful for consumers
and for the environment. I agree with this statement, and in my opinion, eating organic
food is safer, more nutritious, and environmental friendlier than conventional food.
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Cindy Burke states that “if you eat food in the United States, you eat pesticides”
(13). Pesticides are used to kill insects and weeds, so it is not hard to believe that the
ingestion of these chemicals, throughout our lives, may be dangerous to our health.
One of the most common chemicals compounds is the organophosphates. They are
“one of the most toxic chemical compounds around, classified as a neurotoxin,
carcinogen, and generally nasty poison” (Burke 16). In other words, organophosphates
can cause damage to the brain, to the nervous system and can cause cancer. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “sets limits on how much of a pesticide may be
used on food during growing and processing, and how much can remain on the food
you buy” (EPA), but “many of these legal pesticides were approved by the EPA years
ago, before research linked them with cancer and other diseases” (Miller 50). The most
concerning thing is that the pesticides leave residues on fruits and vegetables that
cannot be removed or washed off before eating. It is true to believe that no food will
ever be free of pesticides, but organic food minimizes its use, offering us, food with
minimal pesticides’ residues and the ones that tend to be “significantly higher in cancerfighting antioxidants than conventionally grown food” (Miller 58).
In addition, it is said that organic foods are more nutritious than conventional
food. In a research made for two years in Chicago, “organically grown food was on
average 63 percent higher in calcium, 73 percent higher in iron, 118 percent higher in
magnesium, 178 higher in molybdenum, 91 percent higher in phosphorus, 125 percent
higher in potassium, and 60 percent higher in zinc” (Miller 58). These results confirm
that organic foods have more nutritious value than conventional food, therefore, there
are more beneficial and healthier for humans.
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Even though, the benefits of eating organic food are obvious, supporters of
conventional industry argue that “organic farming can lead to soil depletion and
widespread starvation “(Grover 184). They assure that organic farming is less
productive than conventional farming, which means that the organic production is not
enough to feed the world’s population. Organic farmers in the other hand assure that
organic farming fosters biodiversity, reduces pollution from nitrogen runoff, uses less
energy for a given yield than conventional food, and stores more carbon in the soil, thus
off-setting carbon dioxide emissions” (Grover 172-174).
Another of the aspects that supporters of conventional food point out is that
organic food is not affordable. Most people are consuming food that has been sprayed
with pesticides because they cannot afford organic food. In many cases, organic
products may cost the double than conventional ones. Only the increase on the demand
of organic products could bring the prices down, so they would became affordable for
more people.
In conclusion, the best way to choose accurately our food is to base it on the
knowing of what are we eating. In my opinion, the benefits that we can get from eating
organic foods, such, get more healthier and nutritious food while preserving the
environment, worth the effort of paying that extra money for our food. I know that it is
very difficult to switch completely to organic food, but we can start with little changes,
especially buying the organic version of the products with high levels of pesticides’
residues. Nobody but us, are responsible of our own health, and organic food is the best
alternative to improve the quality of our lives and of the place in which we live.
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Works Cited
Burke, Cindy. To Buy or Not To Buy Organic. What You Need to Know to Choose the
Healthiest, Safest, Most Earth-Friendly Food. New York: Avalon, 2007.
Grover, Jan ed. Current Controversies: Food. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Greenhaven
Press, 2008.
Miller, Debra A. Organic Food. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Lucent Books, 2008.
United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Pesticides.
World Wide Web, 14
October 2008. <www.epa.gov>
United States. USDA National Agricultural Library. Organic Production/Organic Food.
World Wide Web, 14 October 2008. <www.nal.usda.gov>