As a person who buys organic whenever possible I'm not buying your friend's arguments.
For one thing, in the past they did genetic engineering by breeding a tomato with a tomato. These days genetic engineering means inserting genes from jellyfish into a tomato. Frankenfoods seems like an accurate descrption.
Secondly, I'm interested in social justice. Pesticide residues my be withing acceptable levels on produce, but what about agricultural workers? I't my understnding that in concentration the chemicals are bad news for the folks who work in the fields.
Third, in the old days the edges of fields were wildlife habitat. Now the edges of fields are poison. It would take a lot of alternate set-aside area to make up for that habitat loss.
The issue of whether intensive agriculture is needed to feed the world is a red-herring. Probably it is, but that doesn't mean that all agriculture should be industrial agriculture. "Organic" is a meaningless term (there is no legal definition) but in general it implies small scale local production without using the agricultural chemicals produced by big corporations. The benefits of orgainc are:
-lets lsmall scale farmers make a living without getting in debt to agricultural corporations
-preserves heirloom varieties
-makes the food taste a lot better (If you don't believe me, try switching ot organic for a while then seitch back)
-is not dependent on oil prices or supply
-keeps chemicals off agricultural workers and out of my food.
--AmyB
For one thing, in the past they did genetic engineering by breeding a tomato with a tomato. These days genetic engineering means inserting genes from jellyfish into a tomato. Frankenfoods seems like an accurate descrption.
Secondly, I'm interested in social justice. Pesticide residues my be withing acceptable levels on produce, but what about agricultural workers? I't my understnding that in concentration the chemicals are bad news for the folks who work in the fields.
Third, in the old days the edges of fields were wildlife habitat. Now the edges of fields are poison. It would take a lot of alternate set-aside area to make up for that habitat loss.
The issue of whether intensive agriculture is needed to feed the world is a red-herring. Probably it is, but that doesn't mean that all agriculture should be industrial agriculture. "Organic" is a meaningless term (there is no legal definition) but in general it implies small scale local production without using the agricultural chemicals produced by big corporations. The benefits of orgainc are:
-lets lsmall scale farmers make a living without getting in debt to agricultural corporations
-preserves heirloom varieties
-makes the food taste a lot better (If you don't believe me, try switching ot organic for a while then seitch back)
-is not dependent on oil prices or supply
-keeps chemicals off agricultural workers and out of my food.
--AmyB