Benefits of Organic Food - Essay Example

Benefits of Organic Food Part Introduction/preconceptions: Food is such an important aspect of the human life, seen from the amount of money and time and effort most people put into acquiring and preparing it; a large amount of time and money is spent in the supermarkets or restaurants purchasing food, more time and effort is put into preparing food, and people work for hours at their jobs trying to earn enough money to feed themselves and/or their family. The main reason why it is so important to eat, is because living things die without food. Given this importance of food, it should be of utmost significance to decide whether consumption of organic or genetically modified (GM) food can bring more benefits; consuming organic food is more advantageous because it tastes better than, is more environmentally friendly than, is safer to human health than, and better at promoting local economy than, consumption of GM food. I have taken information from other primary and secondary resources to demonstrate that consumption of organic food has more advantages to human health, the environment and the economy than consumption of GM food; but before I had amassed this knowledge, I was already of the opinion that consuming organic food is better that consuming GM food. This view was formed by my own personal experience; I had purchased some GM strawberries and although they were very large and looked perfect in appearance as compared to the smaller and oddly shaped organic strawberries, they were tasteless compared to the sweeter organic strawberries. I had also known that organic food does not use chemicals such as pesticides or tamper with the genes of food as is the case with GM food, so I assumed that eating organic food would be much safer. Though this seems like a biased view, I did conduct the research and examined many articles on both GM and organic food to find out if my preconceived notions about the benefits of organic food were true. The information I found did actually corroborate my assumptions about organic and GM food, and so, my research question remains that consuming organic food is more advantageous because it tastes better than, is more environmentally friendly than, is safer to human health than, and better at promoting local economy than, consumption of GM food. 1. Part 2: What I have learned so far about my subject (the search). 2. Chait, n.p Chait, Jennifer. "8 Reasons Why Consumers Should Buy Organic Food."Http://organic.about.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . 3. Organic food is better than GM food since eating it is tasty, safe and does not contain any chemicals. Also, its production minimizes risk to the environment, since it does not pollute water bodies like production of GM food does, and neither does its farming techniques result in soil erosion and damage to the land. 4. (a) Chait demonstrates that not only is consumption of organic food beneficial to the human body, it helps keep the environment around humans healthy and safe too. (b) I agree with Chait that production of organic food is not as detrimental to the environment as is the production of GM food. The water that drains off farms that produce GM food contains many chemicals like pesticides, and this contaminated water can seep into rivers and lakes and even the ground, and pollute the water, making it unfit to drink, or live in(for marine animals). Also, the excessive tillage of soil on farms that produce GM food can lead to a lot of dust flying around, which causes air pollution. This tillage of soil also leads to soil erosion, which makes floods or droughts more likely to occur. Chait additionally mentions how farms that produce GM food use more fossil fuels and can lead to more harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere, as compared to organic food farms. The benefits to the human body from consumption of organic food include the fact that organic food tastes better than GM food and that it does not contain harmful hormones or pesticides like GM foods do that can harm the health. (c) From this article, I understood the benefits of organic food and the dangers of GM food much better, since it was simply worded and was short and to-the-point. Chait had also cited other researches and studies done to lend credibility to her article. However, I felt that some points could have used more elaboration; for example I would have liked more information on the farming techniques used on both organic and GM food production farms to understand how they influenced soil erosion. 1. Genetically Modified (GM) Foods, n.p "Genetically Modified (GM) Foods." Http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . 2. Food can be genetically altered to make it resistant to pests or disease, and to change its physical appearance and nutritional value. However there are some dangers to consuming GM foods; it can result in creation of "new allergens," antibiotic resistance, and insects that are resistant to pesticides. The article also offers information on the regulation of GM food and the use of labels to distinguish it from other food. 3. (a) While there are many dangers of consuming GM food, there are some advantages to the human health and the environment from its production and consumption. (b) In my opinion this article is very informative on the pros and cons of GM food; it has cited information from other researches to bring credibility to what is being said. I agree with the article that GM foods can result in food with higher nutritional values, be drought and pest resistant, have longer shelf life, but the article also made me realize that there are various dangers to consuming GM foods, namely the fact that the genes that get transferred from product to product may result in the creation of new allergens and antibiotic resistance in the body. (c) This article has certainly given me deeper insight into the advantages and disadvantages of GM food; I did not know that new allergens or antibiotic resistance could be created by consumption of GM food for example. Even though the article did present the positive side of GM foods, I felt more swayed by the cons of GM foods, mainly because these were more elaborated on than the advantages. 1. Why Local, n.p. "Why Local." Http://marinorganic.org/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . 2. The article outlines the reasons why individuals should consider purchasing organic food, namely because it is "better for you, better for the environment," and also because locally produced organic food entails that the profit of the sold products goes directly to the farmers. The more the profits return directly to the farmers, the better the local economy gets, and more money is available to be spent on local communities that produced the food. 3. (a) The article's main purpose is to expose the benefits of producing and consuming locally produced organic food, for the environment, human health, and for the local economy. (b) For me, the article's strength lies in the way that it has detailed information on how exactly consumption and production of organic food is beneficial. Moreover the information is written in a persuasive style; indeed when I was reading it, I imagined a salesperson talking to me and selling me the benefits of organic food. I was particularly fascinated with the article's detailed description of the soil found in organic farms and its mineral content, and the vivid example of how GM tomatoes were given longer shelf life by inserting into them genes from cold water fish. (c) This article was illuminating in the way that it allowed me to learn how exactly are organic food farms better than farms producing GM food. A new fact that I learned from the article was that American farmers often receive "less than 20 cents per dollar for their products," since most of this money goes to the men who transport the food to the markets, the retailers, the food brokers and so on. When organic food is bought directly from the farmers, they receive all the profit, and I learned that this is good for the local economy since all this profit gets to be spent within the local community instead of being used outside it. 1. Is Organic Food Really Better for the Environment? n.p "Is Organic Food Really Better For The Environment?" Http://www.thechicecologist.com/. N.p., 2010. Web. 08 July 2013. . 2. This article outlines the ways in which organic food production is more environmentally friendly as compared to that of GM food. Basically, organic food farming minimizes the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, and that it helps the soil. 3. (a) The author himself clearly states that his intention is to prove that production of organic food is much better for the environment than the production of GM food. (b) The article states that each acre of land given to organic food farming results in the removal of 7000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air every year. GM food producing farms use chemical pesticides that can seep into the soil and pollute it and the water contained beneath it. Also, organic food farms help return nutrients to the soil faster than GM food farms can. (c) This article was helpful in making me realize how exactly production of organic food can help the environment; before reading I had no idea that it could remove so many pounds of carbon dioxide from the air, or that it could replace nutrients in the soil faster than GM farming techniques could. 1. Organic Food Benefits, n.p. "Organic Food Benefits." Http://nutiva.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . 2. This article offers ten reasons why we should choose organic food over GM food; the most significant ones are that organic food meets "stringent standards," it tastes better, reduces health risks, protects the environment and protects the jobs of local farming communities. 3. (a) The main point of the article is that the production and consumption of organic food is both good for the human body and for the environment. (b) The article contains ten reasons why we should consume and produce organic food, and these are all simply worded, and there are other researches and studies cited to increase credibility of the article. I agree with the article that organic food tastes better, is juicer, sweeter and firmer than GM food. (c) I always knew that organic food tastes better than GM food, but this article cited a study done on a comparison of organic and GM apples to show that organic apples did indeed taste better; this example was strong proof for my assumption that organic food does taste better than GM food. Part 3: What I have discovered so far (Evaluation) This research has corroborated my initial assumption that consuming organic food is more advantageous compared to consuming GM food. Nevertheless I did uncover much more information about organic food's advantages through my research; I learnt any different things that I did not even know of before. For example I had no idea that the production and consumption of local organic food could help the economy, or that production of GM food could lead to the formation of new allergens and antibiotic resistance in humans. I feel that initially I was only basing my case that organic food was better than GM food on the fact that I had eaten some tasteless, GM strawberries, and on the few articles I had skimmed through on the internet about the dangers of GM food. Doing this research gave me a solid ground on which to base my case; I had statistics and case studies and other researches that I could use to support my claim and give me more credibility. An important lesson I learnt from doing research was that making claims based on just personal experiences is not enough; there needs to be a thorough study done on all the resources that are available on the topic, to acquire an extensive base on which to fight your case for. Works Cited. Chait, Jennifer. "8 Reasons Why Consumers Should Buy Organic Food." Http://organic.about.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . "Genetically Modified (GM) Foods." Http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . "Is Organic Food Really Better For The Environment?" Http://www.thechicecologist.com/. N.p., 2010. Web. 08 July 2013. . "Organic Food Benefits." Http://nutiva.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . "Why Local." Http://marinorganic.org/. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. . Read More