Preview

The Truth about Non Organic foods

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1307 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Truth about Non Organic foods
WRIT 121-80305

February 3, 2014

The Truth about Non-Organic Foods

In today’s society, an individual can go into the grocery store to pick up some “fresh” lettuce and garnishing’s for a salad and think that they are doing something good for both them self and for the environment. This same person will likely purchase low calorie snacks, sugar free desserts, and perhaps even Splenda and then live under the misconception that they are in fact eating a “healthy” diet. Yet, within the so-called fresh salad and the other products mentioned above, are little secrets; secrets that most food sellers don’t want consumers to know. In fact, these types of products are what are commonly referred to as non-organic. Non-organic foods include chemicals and fertilizers and can be defined as deprived of living. As opposed to organic foods which are foods produced by using organic farming. Here, the word organic refers to the way the farmers grow and process these agricultural products, such as fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products and meat. Organic farming practices are designed to encourage soil and water conversation and reduce pollution. Farmers who grow organic produce and meat don't use conventional methods to fertilize, or to control weeds and prevent livestock disease. For example, rather than using chemical weed killers, organic farmers may conduct more sophisticated crop rotations and spread mulch to keep seeds at bay. There are, of course many supporters of nonorganic food, who argue that there is little difference between non organic and organic food. According to a recent 2012 study conducted at Harvard University, "eating organic fruits and vegetables may lower exposure to pesticides, however the amount measured from non-organic foods is still within safety limits, making it safe and still healthy for consumers to eat non organic products” (47). However, there are a growing

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Anyone who shops for groceries has to make decisions on what food to buy and they usually do not think about where the food is coming from. When it comes to healthier food choices, most of the time these are being shipped from a farm. However, not all farming can benefit the consumer purchasing their products. One of the biggest debates is on modern farming and the usage of things such as chemicals and hormones to produce quality agriculture and crops. Many are concerned of how these treatments may affect their health. A solution to this issue would be for farms to switch over to organic farming. Organic farming is focused on using natural methods for fertilizer and pesticides, soil regeneration, water conservation, animal welfare, and farming in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Consumers should consider purchasing organic farmed foods because it’s nutritious, free of toxic chemicals, and affordable.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The following chapter delves into the principles of organic farming and their various implementations in modern America. Pollan shows that as organic food has grown in popularity, its producers have adopted many of the methods of industrial agriculture, while losing sight of the organic movement's anti-industrial roots. A meal prepared from ingredients purchased at Whole Foods represents this food chain at the table. As a study in contrast, Pollan visits a small-scale organic farm, where natural conditions are adhered to as closely as possible, very few artificial inputs are used, and waste products are recycled back into the system. He then prepares a meal using only local produce from small-scale organic farmers.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his essay “The Organic Fable,” Roger Cohen argues that there is little to no difference between organic foods and regular foods. He says, “Organic has long since become an ideology,” says it is branding, not science, and says we need genetically modified food anyway to feed more people. He also says it is an, “obsession of an upper middle class,” and compares buying organic foods to, “paying to send your kids to private school.” I believe, though, that his argument is biased and inconsistent, because of his existing dislike for organic foods and his praising of organic foods at times in his essay.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Critique Paper

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Kristen Weinacker’s essay “Safer? Tastier? More nutritious? The Dubious Merits of Organic Foods”, she makes a claim of fact that organic foods may not be more nutritional than conventionally grown foods. Weinacker does an exceptional job supporting her claim effectively with evidence by using the opinions of several experts, as well as the appeal to our physiological needs. She warrants that by mentioning the use of slick marketing techniques by organic food companies and our belief that organic farmers “bring us back to nature”, we tend to forgive statistical data and start to lean on our common sense. Throughout the essay Weinacker reiterates that most, if not all, of the research data available does not contain the statistical proof necessary to successfully warrant the claim.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Aktar, M. W. (2014). ORGANIC FOOD AND PESTICIDES: MYTH AND REALITY. Journal of Information, Intelligence and Knowledge, 6(3), 273-294. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1626844614?accountid=458…

    • 1240 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    What Are We Really Eating?

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Organic Food is the agricultural produce that farmers make on the country 's regulation and without agricultural chemicals and fertilizer .Organic Food is very safety for human body, and contains much more vitamins, calcium, and iron than non-organic one. organic food 's taste and smell are richer than that one. For these reasons, the popularity of organic food is developing. But when making it, it costs much to protect from harmful insect. Organic food has both a popular meaning, and, in some countries, a legal definition. In everyday conversation, it usually refers to all "naturally produced" foods, or the product of organic farming. As a legal term, it means certified organic. The distinction is important, as the two definitions can represent quite different products.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While conventional food products are still dominating American market, the phrase "healthy eating" is gradually gaining popularity. To supplement this new trendy belief, a wave of organic products is sweeping across this nation's grocery stores. But do people really realize the differences between conventional and organic products as they mound their shopping carts? Do they know that the main differences between the two categories of foods actually lie in their processing procedures, advertising strategies, and product ingredients?…

    • 818 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Recently, I became a member of a CSA—community supported agriculture—and am receiving a box of organic produce delivered to my doorstep every week. My reasons for doing this are as follows: I want to eat locally grown produce; I want to reduce the use of chemicals in the food I eat; I want to reduce my carbon footprint by buying local, non-corporate food; I prefer to support local farmers, especially in a down economy; by subscribing rather than just buying at a farmer’s market, I’m showing my commitment to organic farming; and I will eat a broader range of vegetables as a result. By doing this, I am hoping to improve my own health while also, I hope, reducing the environmental costs of corporate farming. Michael Pollan’s “Behind the Organic-Industrial…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Pollan talks about most of the organic food we consume today is produced from the so-called “industrial organic” farms, which belong firmly to the industrial food chain rather than the ideal organic food chain. First, the reality of “organic food” chain is largely inaccurately reported.…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay on Eating Locally

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The safety of what we eat is the number one concern among those who worry about factory-produced food. In order to produce as much product as possible, factory animals are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. Likewise, our fruits and vegetables are genetically modified and sprayed with insecticides. These chemicals have detrimental effects on our health and are ruining our food for no reason other than corporate profit. The only way to avoid our exposure to these things is to either buy organic food or buy it locally. Organic foods are the most rapidly growing segment of our food industry, doubling in growth every few years (Ikerd). Unfortunately, Organic food from supermarkets is just another big business which contributes to eliminating earth resources and often misleads consumers with its claims. If more people began eating locally, we would decrease the…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. The advantages of organic food, you are what you eat: An article about organic food and diseases in non-organic food…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The industrial food chain unveils the horrifying but accurate truths to some of the origins of foods found in our local grocery store. For example, Pollan follows the process of how a cattle in a feedlot is turned into the meals found on our dinner tables. His novel sheds light onto the underlying corruption found in the food industry--the health problems resulting from feeding the cattle grain and not grass, the overwhelming use of chemicals and antibiotics in crops and animals, and the disgusting and cluttered environments of feedlots and industrialized farms. Section two focuses on organic foods, or rather, the ambiguous definition of organic foods. Pollan explores the manipulation of misleading labels and advertisements that deceive consumers into believing their foods are organic. However, many people do not know what it means for a food to be labelled as “organic”. As decided by the Federal Government, organic foods can use certain synthetic ingredients in foods, but cannot use antibiotics, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizers. These rules were then bent and blurred, making it so that the common “organic” farm was not truly organic. For instance, when Pollan visits one of these organic farms, he is dismayed when he realizes that despite the chickens having an outdoor area, it is so small that none of the chickens even bother to venture outside their confines. Looking at the situation from this…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To the average consumer, eating has now developed into well beyond an agricultural act, declares Wendell Berry. Apparent in the audience of his lectures on the decline of farming, American citizens are unable to recognize the existence of food beyond the food industry—the world of fake, processed food. Ask any individual from where their food comes and they will answer, “the grocery store.” Stirring Berry to anger, he exclaims that food begins with life, plant and animal; if food begins in the laboratory, the results more accurately categorize as experiments rather than food. Michael Pollan strongly supports this claim by stating, “what reductive science can manage to perceive well enough to isolate and study is subject to change, and that we have a tendency to assume that what we can see is all there is to see” (p. 11). What this means is that food plastered with health claims can only assure the consumer their soon-to-be purchase has been on…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Omnivores Delimma

    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In America, we do not decide what is healthy and what is not by the authenticity of natural food, but rather nutrition facts. If we are in a store and see a label that says “only 100 calories” we are drawn to that item instead of an item labeled “organic” or “all-natural”. This is because as a society, we are always on a “fad diet” and believe that health has to do with calorie counting and sugar intake as opposed to the actual production of the food itself. In Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, argues that this is not the case. Pollan goes into an in-depth investigation to show that the organic food chain is the healthiest and most realistic of the “three principal food chains that sustain us today: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer” (7),…

    • 1578 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When purchasing meat from an organic farm stand at a farmer’s market, consumers support that farm. On the other hand, buying non-organic meat that isn’t local, free-range, or ranch-raised from a supermarket chain will most likely support a multinational food corporation. After the experience change in some of the famers’ supermarkets, I also started realizing the foods tasted better and after eating, I felt lighter and full at the same time. I also saw that costs were higher than the farmers’ markets but it truly made a difference to purchase organic produce and meats. It decreased health risks like diabetes and…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays