Re:Study finds organic food no more nutritive than non-organic
by ryandvm on Monday September 03, 2012 @09:24PM
(#4472623)
Actually, it's pretty well established that it's going to take industrial agriculture to feed the world's population in the coming years. Unfortunately it is organic farming that will ultimately turn out to be unsustainable.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=organic-far...
Re:Study finds organic food no more nutritive than non-organic
by msutherl on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @01:21AM
(#4473254)
"Of course, the cost of using 171 million metric tons of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is paid in dead zones at the mouths of many of the world's rivers. These anoxic zones result from nitrogen-rich runoff promoting algal blooms that then die and, in decomposing, suck all the oxygen out of surrounding waters."
Right.
Re:Study finds organic food no more nutritive than non-organic
by fractallyte on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @04:20AM
(#4473647)
In 2009, a programme from BBC's 'The Natural World' series covered this precise issue: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hs8zp
The programme's presenter is a farmer, from a family of farmers. She explored the latest developments in 'sustainable' agriculture and arrived at some surprising conclusions. 'Permaculture' was one of the most radical ideas, and the suggestion is that it could truly revolutionize modern farming.
It was a thoughtful, reasoned and compelling commentary; a programme which I found important enough to make an 'offline' copy for myself...
Second, it's dubious whether the nutrient theory of nutrition completely describes our body's relationship with food. Many people eat organic food because it eliminates the unknowns. We know that industrial farming has a negative effect on food quality, but the negative effect could be even larger than we are capable of measuring, so better to play it safe.
This echoes Europe's policy on GMOs, which is that if there is any risk of catastrophe, that risk is not worth taking. There is a name for this sort of policy, but I've forgotten the term and can't seem to find it.
Another reason that I personally avoid industrial agriculture is because it is fundamentally unsustainable: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/a-banker-bet.... I get all of my vegetables from a local farm mainly for this reason and another that comes from taking a sort of Marxist perspective on the issue. Industrial farming creates a lot of repetitive, unfulfilling jobs. I'd rather support people that live with and love their land, who get to engage with the challenge of optimizing all of the energy and nutrient flows in their farm. Running a farm can actually be a very interesting design/engineering problem.