eqtworld: From a marketing perspective, "Organic" is pure genius.

So is Fairtrade.

eqtworld: From a marketing perspective, "Organic" is pure genius.

Even the term "organic" is great, because it immediately paints your competitors as "synthetic," regardless of what they sell.

It's a lot easier for customers to be smug when they aren't from the countryside and have no clue whatsoever about the real world.

eqtworld: From a marketing perspective, "Organic" is pure genius.
Kierkegaard's Pseudonym: Even the term "organic" is great, because it immediately paints your competitors as "synthetic," regardless of what they sell.

This. It always puzzles me the organic label - I mean WTF? It makes me want to yell: All food is organic you tremendous farkwits!

Apart from salt. That's a mineral.

Maintaining certification in the USA is a pain in the ass I hear. These farmers probably can't afford the dues and regulations involved.

ethics-gradient: Apart from salt. That's a mineral.

Win.

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I get free organic vegetables three times a week for nothing, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies, which I didn't bother to read yet.

Yay!!, pesticides and harmful chemical fertilizers!!! one of the reasons I can't go swimming at Barton Springs anymore without there being a foot of green algae. Thanks golfers and assholes who insist on maintaining their lawn through the drought and 8 months of 100 degree heat here. Of course, only smug people care about the environment they live in. Oh shiat, I used that word. Only hippies and Global Warmers use that word. Guess I better stick to watching the plasma in my treeless, sterile, gated community....


/Hippies!....
//..Don't live in Austin anymore.....

ramblin: Maintaining certification in the USA is a pain in the ass I hear. These farmers probably can't afford the dues and regulations involved.

No, it's simply more expensive and has a lower yield, so if people aren't paying a premium for it, it's simply bad business. It's not like the farmers themselves usually care if it's organic or not. It's which provides more money per acre.

epoc_tnac: I get free organic vegetables three times a week for nothing, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies, which I didn't bother to read yet.

Do they some shipped fresh to you from the Department of Redundancy Department?

eqtworld: Yeah, it makes it sound like all the other apples were synthesized from a vat of chemicals.

You can always count on fark to bring copious amounts of stupid. I wonder what the ingredient list on synthetic pesticides include.

ethics-gradient: This. It always puzzles me the organic label - I mean WTF? It makes me want to yell: All food is organic you tremendous farkwits!

I eat rocks all the time, don't you? They're amazing with a little silicon caulk on them.

BlippityBleep: eqtworld: Yeah, it makes it sound like all the other apples were synthesized from a vat of chemicals.

You can always count on fark to bring copious amounts of stupid. I wonder what the ingredient list on synthetic pesticides include.

Of course, because nobody washes their fruits or vegetables when they bring them home. Well, the ones that can't rub two brain cells together, anyway.

Organic is a silly marketing gimmick. For the last century our farming techniques have had higher yield crops, more diverse foods, higher resistances to bacteria and insects, and a severely increased life expectancy. But in the last 10 years it's suddenly going to kill us?

Hmmm. In the context of produce, doesn't the term "organic" indicate whether or not pesticides were used? So far as I know, it hs never been used to indicate the composition of the produce itself. Not that the term applies to the Pop Tarts that constitute my primary staple.

eqtworld: I read a study recently that showed eating food treated with pesticides has been scientifically proven to shorten the average lifespan by 4.6 years.

You mean I can pay less to eat mutant pesticide food all my life AND I don't have to spend as much time rotting in a nursing home lying in my own poop and dying of infected bedsores all over me because the staff couldn't be bothered to turn me over? Kick ass!

eqtworld: BlippityBleep: eqtworld: Yeah, it makes it sound like all the other apples were synthesized from a vat of chemicals.

You can always count on fark to bring copious amounts of stupid. I wonder what the ingredient list on synthetic pesticides include.

It's a secret, there is no way to find out. The corporations won't tell you and the government does not care.

I read a study recently that showed eating food treated with pesticides has been scientifically proven to shorten the average lifespan by 4.6 years.

Well that certainly sells me. After all, it took years to "scientifically prove" cigarettes cause cancer. Shine on you crazy diamond.

So, beggars really can't be choosers? I'll be.

Organic production is a great marketing ploy, and a highly successful one as long as consumers are willing to pay the premium. Organic farming does actually reduce wasteful over-fertilization and insecticide use, but it does so in an inefficient manner. The optimal solution is to combine more sustainable farming practices e.g. planting cover crops to fix nitrogen into the soil, with responsible use of fertilizers and insecticides. This unfortunately has no marketing "buzz," so we are stuck with one harmful but productive farming practice, and one non-harmful but expensive and inefficient practice.

We'll figure it out eventually. I hope.

/Ag and Resource Econ Student

MightyPez:
Organic is a silly marketing gimmick. For the last century our farming techniques have had higher yield crops, more diverse foods, higher resistances to bacteria and insects, and a severely increased life expectancy. But in the last 10 years it's suddenly going to kill us?

Over the last century our farming techniques have poisoned/polluted the water supply so badly that it cannot support life, eroded two thirds of the topsoil, and utilized bits of deadly viruses and bacteria to create GMOs that have unknown long term health effects (not to mention whatever is created when the virus parts bind with each other and not with the vegetable part). You cannot get rid of all pesticide in apples and other vegetables even with washing and scrubbing. Organic farming yields over 90% of the conventional counterparts (more than conventional in developing countries) and doesn't rely on petrochemicals to be produced. The higher cost has more to do with government subsidies that go to conventional farms.

Hydroponic farms, FTW.

/ What? That isn't organic?
// I still prefer hydroponic stuff anyways, IMO it's juicier

While the people who buy "organic" are well-intentioned, their knowledge of the issue is pretty much confined to the oft repeated lie that organic food is somehow "healthier" for you.

This is not the case. An organic bell pepper is the same as a regular bell-pepper. Only the organic costs more, because the farmer lost a larger portion of his crop to insects and fungi.

"Organic" farming may be better for the environment, but it translates into absolutely no quantifiable benefits for your health.

By the same token, the bleeding hearts can soon whimper goodbye to the ozone layer and the polar ice caps because people will stop paying premium prices for all the so-called green products. Boo hoo.

Hope this means we will see the end of the ludicrous sham that is "carbon offsetting". What a con. When people like Al Gore tell the world they pay to offset their carbon footprint, what they don't tell you is they are paying the money to organisations set up and run by people like...Al Gore. Go figure!

Anyhoo, I'll continue to eat "non-organic" food as I always have. Maybe this time it's my turn to feel smug!

BokChoy: While the people who buy "organic" are well-intentioned, their knowledge of the issue is pretty much confined to the oft repeated lie that organic food is somehow "healthier" for you.

This is not the case. An organic bell pepper is the same as a regular bell-pepper. Only the organic costs more, because the farmer lost a larger portion of his crop to insects and fungi.

"Organic" farming may be better for the environment, but it translates into absolutely no quantifiable benefits for your health.

Actually, organic food mainly sells on the premise that continued exposure to pesticides and other chemical additives probably aren't that great for you. Moreover, the industrial farming techniques used often lead to larger, faster grown vegetables with less flavour than food that is given time to develop. So, in my opinion, certain organic foods taste better (tomatoes and strawberries being the most notable examples that come to mind).

But if you like eating pesticides, be my guest. I personally eat everything, but I do prefer stuff that is locally grown, organic, or both. And I like to think about what I eat, instead of going into denial about it.

BokChoy: It translates into absolutely no quantifiable benefits for your health.

Nice usage of the word quantifiable.

In logic it means : "To limit the variables of (a proposition) by prefixing an operator such as all or some."

All or some benefits to the health?

It took us 20 years and several extinctions of species for us to realize DDT's not that good - what makes you think all of sudden we got better on chemicals and pesticides?

The benefits are long term and therefore hard to quantify unless immediately measurable.

Besides - Since both choices are available, what point is there to dislike the option?

First thing, organic growers have a range of pesticides that they can use. Whether its a biocontrol, or old school pesticides like sulfur. Even compounds that are derived from other plants. You can prevent disease in organic crops, but its usually more expensive.

The food is probably better for you because organic growers don't employ systemic pesticides. Systemics stay reside in the plant, and attack fungi or bacteria that enter. If they are sprayed too late in the season, they will be in your food. Of course that's all regulated, and no one ever breaks the rules.

Most people i know that eat organic food do so to minimize their impact on the environment, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers really destroy ecosystems. But there is an elitism or smugness that some people exude because of their eating habits. Also, eating organic food from California when you live in New York completely defeats the purpose. You would be better off eating local conventional food.

Seasonal Climate Change is Killing you

I eat rocks all the time, don't you? They're amazing with a little silicon caulk on them.

Admit it. You just like the caulk.

CrispFlows: It took us 20 years and several extinctions of species for us to realize DDT's not that good - what makes you think all of sudden we got better on chemicals and pesticides?

Fallacy of composition.

CrispFlows: Besides - Since both choices are available, what point is there to dislike the option?

Organic farming requires more acreage for the same volume of product, and while less reliant on modern chemicals... drewkumo: First thing, organic growers have a range of pesticides that they can use. Whether its a biocontrol, or old school pesticides like sulfur.

...Yum! Sulfur! And don't forget good old feces for fertilizer.

"Organic" labelling just means a different method of production, like "halal" or "kosher" labels. In a way, it makes it a religious choice.

ethics-gradient: It's a lot easier for customers to be smug when they aren't from the countryside and have no clue whatsoever about the real world.

... Yeah... This.

Even in Maine, I have actually met people, adults (technically) who think food comes from "the grocery store". I'm not entirely sure what the appeal of "organic" is. It sounds a little like pr0n to me.

Customer: Is this chicken organic?
Sales Rep: Sure is, I organed it myself.

/My all organic garden rocks
//Not like that, you pervert

Some words have more than one meaning? This is an outrage!

Who wants food with organs anyway!

"I've seen the big eared boys down on the farm!"



/Spinal column in a bap please

40oz_A_Knight: Fallacy of composition.

Thanks... I didn't know about that fallacy.

/ Atoms are invisible
// Humans are made of atoms
/// therefore, humans are invisible.