by HairyGaul » Sun May 24, 2009 4:29 pm
Jesus don't get me started! 'Organic' has just become a mostly meaningless marketing word like 'green'. What makes me crazy is that twenty/twenty-five years ago when I was a kid my family lived a mostly organic lifestyle. We grew all our own vegetables, raised a few animals for meat that we supplemented with hunting. The meat we did buy was raised locally and butchered in a real butcher shop. We had a farm nearby with free ranged chickens. They had an egg shop where you could go in and buy delicious brown eggs for a dollar a dozen. There were usually no people in the shop, you took your eggs and left the money in a coffee can. We did all of this mostly because we were poor! It was signifigantly cheaper to buy and live 'organic'. Now if you want to buy organic you have to be some affluent yuppie twat. I don't know what it's like in the UK but over here if you want to eat in a fit and healthy manner; i.e. no HFCS, no trans-fats, no weird hormones, you have to have money.
Sorry, rant over. Anyway I think organic is probably better for you generally even if it's just avoiding weird chemicals. But as the article pointed out there's not enough proof or even indication that the slight benefit is worth the cost. If you want organic to be worth it just grow as much of your own veg as you can. Even if it's just a few bushel baskets full of dirt on your patio.
One more thing on the rant. Organic fertilizer is shit. Chicken shit and cow shit mostly. They usually don't put that on the label--"Hey, your food grew cuz we buried it in shit!". I'd like to see how much the soccer moms would buy organic then.
Seven times down.
Eight times up.