What do you think about organic food and non-organic food?

Usually I am indifferent on my food choice, but I am leaning more towards non-organic food. I find both kinds of food hard to tell the difference of in taste though.

I often hear that organic food is "natural", but I feel like that's false in many ways, because most crops have been influenced by humans, sort of like the process of artificial breeding for animals. For example, seedless fruits, the Cavendish banana, and various other fruits and food are just as artificial as non-organic food, so I don't see "natural" as a great argument from defenders of organic food. Now organic food might be healthier than non-organic food, but not more "natural".

Now I do like that companies spray pesticides in order to protect food. I wouldn't want to eat food that has been spoiled by insects, fungus, and other organisms. I do hear that pesticides can make insects more immune, so that is a downfall to non-organic food.

But my true decision-making comes down to which of the two is the cheapest, because non-organic food resists invaders, so they tend to be easier to produce in mass quantities. Thus, I prefer non-organic food slightly more than organic food.

Which one do you prefer, organic food or non-organic food?

 

I think the biggest problem with "organic" is that it's mostly just marketing. Organic food tends to be marketed as "fresher, better, etc." and tends to cost more, but the difference between organic and inorganic for both taste and health is usually so minute that you wouldn't notice a whole lot of difference.

And depending on how scientists define "organic" which I personally think is a loose term, there are also other problems that arise; without certain plant hormones (e.g. auxin, ethylene gas, gibberellins, etc.), you get less yield or other things. For instance, gibberellins in addition to auxins, when applied to grapes, allow for more aggregation (biggest clusters of berries), but also inhibit seeds inside the fruit. And ethylene, when used on banana, tomatoes, and other fruits help ripen the fruits.

Other issue is crop yield due to insects. The use of pesticides in crops is probably the thing that marketers and advertisers emphasize the most; a lot of times the marketing tactic is "if pesticides are bad for insects, think about what you're ingesting" or "insects can become resistant and turn into superbugs". But personally, I'd be more concerned about the worm in my apple or the insects that have sneaked inside the food.

And besides, I think there are some good counter-arguments. To the first point about humans ingesting pesticides, it's really about the dosage. For instance, there is such thing as drinking too much water, too much alcohol, too much coffee, too much energy drinks, or eating too much of something, and it's always better to maintain moderation. When you really think about pesticides, it's a tiny dose that kills insects, but that tiny dose has little to no effect on humans.

And finally, if you're eating organic food just to be healthy (which still isn't that different from non-organic food), but you're also eating food that have way too much high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, sodium, or other things, you're really making no difference to your health. And realistically, it's hard to avoid all of those things since competition in the food industry is more about attracting the most customers rather than attracting healthy individuals, unless you actually cook your own meals. I would say that if you want to be healthy, you need to leark how to cook your own meals, because then you can control the quantity of ingredients.

 

I think it depends more on the carrots than whether it's organic or not, sometimes even extra ingredients you use in the recipe makes a difference. And sometimes chemicals in nonorganic food can affect the flavor profile (make it taste better OR worse), but that mostly depends on the chemical itself.

Honestly, I can't distinguish carrots that I get from Whole Foods to carrots I get from anywhere else, so the main difference is just price. It could just be a difference between peeled carrots and non-peeled carrots; generally when you peel carrots yourself, it's better.