I Hope This Is Not A New Trend

I Don't like that I'm posting yet another negative blog post. I'm a happy person damn it! But I felt like I had to address this. I just read this article I will have to go through it and explain all the ways it is stupid bullshit.

[Right now, someone nearby is buying organic bean sprouts. It may be the last thing he ever does. Last week’s E. coli outbreak in Germany - potentially traced to an organic farm - was more deadly than the largest nuclear disaster of the last quarter-century.]


Wow what a over dramatic first sentence. 
The key word here is POTENTIALLY. If it did come from the organic farm this deadly E. coli came from the manure of livestock stock pumped full of antibiotics everyday creating this shit. That is if it wasn't created in a lab to kill people off, like some people have suggested is the way it has mutated so quickly to be resistant against so many antibiotics. 
Wasn't it from the cucumbers yesterday?


[If that view of the organic industry was ever true, it has changed over the past 20 years. Organic food has grown into a multibillion-dollar global food enterprise driven by the very same bottom-line pressures that safety advocates blame for Tokyo Power and BP putting their corporate profits before public safety. If you don’t believe it, ask yourself why organic bean sprouts cost twice as much as modern bean sprouts. In a word, greed.] 


I will give them that, but they are kind of exaggerating. The companies want to make money, but seriously organic food farmers are like BP? Give me a fucking break.  



[The time has come for even the mighty organic lobby to accept the precautionary principle - the idea that it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to organic farms’ potentially deadly practices. Until we know for certain that the outbreak could not have been caused by the suspect organic farm, we must act to protect the public from the unknown risks of organic practices.]


The mighty organic lobby? Are you fucking kidding me? You know how hard it is for me to buy organic? We need to protect the public from the unknown risks of eating real food? How the fuck is some one writing this gibberish? 



[First, the Obama administration needs to impose a timeout in the expansion or opening of any new organic farms while regulators and federal safety experts examine the ongoing dangers presented by organic food.]


Go fuck yourself. 


[The core of organic farming is the rejection of a century’s worth of scientific advances. The same risks that Christian Scientists take with their own children when they reject modern medicine, organic farmers are eager to take with your children when they reject modern agriculture.]


Is that why science is saying how healthy organic food is?  This modern science you say that we are rejecting says that eating pesticides is not healthy for you or the environment. Organic farmers now want you not to get medical treatment? I repeat go fuck yourself. 


[Obviously, the powerful organic industry would object, but the case against it is easily understood. No one would allow an electric utility to build and operate a new nuclear power plant with 1950s-era-technology without proof the design was safer than modern technology. Those who cling to the 1850s feces-based agricultural technology should face the same hurdles. As should those who reject key safety advances such as the E. coli-killing practice of irradiating suspect foods and genetic engineering, which holds promise in using natural biological proc-esses to limit the spread of food-borne illness.]


Irradiating: 1. Expose to radiation.

2. Expose (food) to gamma rays to kill microorganisms. 

Because we know how healthy it is to be expose to radiation.

[With the lives of children at stake - and the fact that the federal government is taking a larger role in paying for expensive health care - we simply can’t allow the organic industry to continue to pretend it is no different from modern agriculture. Have I mentioned saving the children?]

Have I mention how stupid this fear mongering article is? They want us to not eat normal natural food. How bat shit crazy. For the whole article go here. 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/8/dead-bodies-demand-organic-food-moratorium/

If you want to read articles that aren't stupid click on the links below. 

http://www.grist.org/article/new-study-weighs-in-on-organicconventional-debate It is different it is BETTER!

[The study design was both careful and comprehensive in scope. The strawberries were grown on 13 conventional and 13 organic fields, with organic/conventional field pairs located adjacently in order to control for soil type and weather patterns. The data was drawn from repeated harvests over a two-year period, and the strawberries were picked, transported, and stored under identical conditions to replicate retail practices. And just as farming is a complex business, scientists contributing to the study range from soil and food scientists to genetics experts and statistics specialists, who analyzed 31 soil properties, soil DNA, and the relative taste and nutritional quality of three strawberry varieties in California.

The results are pretty convincing: organic strawberries are healthier, tastier, and better for the soil than conventional strawberries.

First, let’s take a look at strawberry quality. Consumers buying organic products consistently cite the health benefits of organic foods as a main purchasing motivation. Yet there is a general lack of conclusive data to back this up. However, the WSU study found that organic strawberries ultimately beat conventional strawberries in quality, based on a number of factors: Organic methods resulted in strawberries with increased antioxidants, vitamin C, and total phenolics. While phosphorus and potassium levels were higher in conventional crops, the study emphasized the importance of vitamin C and antioxidants in relation to human health; vitamin C from strawberries has been shown to have a direct, negative effect on cancer cell growth.

The plants themselves are also healthier: Organic strawberry plants showed fewer instances of post-harvest fungal rots than conventional strawberries, despite the fact that no fungicides were used on the organic fields. The study notes this finding may prove that organic systems help defend plants against infection through systemic-acquired resistance rather than chemical inputs.

And for those who value flavor more than health, organic also outdoes conventional in taste tests. Consumer-sensory panels found little difference between two of the organic and conventional strawberry varieties, but preferred the organic "Diamante" variety for its appearance and sweetness over its conventional counterpart.

Then there’s the issue of soil quality. While consumers may be solely interested in the end result, farming leaders such as Will Allen and Wendell Berry have stressed that high-quality soil is the basis for healthy agro-ecosystems. California farmers have relied on methyl bromide (an ozone-depleting toxic fumigant) to sterilize their soil for decades, and as a result have reduced soil from a habitat for microorganisms into a growing medium devoid of nutrients. Despite the conventional practice of spraying soils with synthetic fertilizers, the study found that organic fields contained significantly higher amounts of nutrients. Organic and conventional soils contained similar levels of most extractable nutrients, but organic soil had higher levels of zinc, boron, sodium, and iron. Organic soils also performed better through a number of biological properties, such as enzyme activities, micronutrient levels, and carbon sequestration.

But what’s perhaps most interesting in the study is the use of DNA analysis, which helped scientists establish that organic soils contain a significantly higher amount of unique genes and overall genetic diversity. In a time when global warming is creating increasingly unpredictable weather conditions, biodiversity is one of our greatest defenses against climate change (for more on this idea, look no further than activist and physicist Vandana Shiva, a compelling advocate of the social, economic, and health-related benefits of biodiversity).

Strawberry fumigants are a hot-button issue in California right now, making this study especially timely. While the negative effects of methyl bromide have been established, and it was technically banned under an international treaty back in the 1980s, the fumigant is still being used until a substitute can be found. However, the proposed methyl iodide, approved under the Bush administration in 2008, is possibly even more toxic than methyl bromide, as Tom Laskawy has covered for Grist. In light of the study, this controversy is bordering on the absurd -- why even look for a new fumigant when organic production clearly produces better soil quality, increased nutrient density, and doesn't rely on chemicals that make farm workers sick?

For any naysayers out there who are clinging to the Monsanto line that conventional agriculture is the only way to feed the world, while this study doesn’t delve into crop yields itself, a 2009 report put out by the Union of Concerned Scientists may put that claim to rest. Despite the fact that in some instances conventional methods may marginally raise the yield of food crops (while genetically modified crops were shown to produce no increase in yield), this study notes it comes at a high cost to the environment and our health. The chemical inputs used in conventional farming are directlycontributing to unpredictable climate changes, which will affect our long-term ability to consistently grow food.

It's hard to argue against Reganold's findings. Even while some categories of analysis produced similar results between conventional and organic strawberries, the fact that organic methods did not rely on toxic chemical inputs is a big, juicy point in its favor. Promoting organic agro-ecosystems means fewer people will be exposed to toxic chemicals, all in the name of producing a healthier, tastier piece of fruit.]

FUCK YEAH ORGANIC! It could be a super hero!  

Here is another kick ass article http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126418129

[But the argument for industrial agriculture and biotechnology is built on a misleading depiction of what organic agriculture is, bolstered with shaky statistics, and constructed by ignoring the on-the-ground lessons of success stories across the globe.]


Thank you NPR!