Organic food
In a paper published in Nature (December 12, 2018) titled ‘Assessing the efficiency of changes in land use for mitigating climate change’, researchers reported that “Organic food has a much bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed food.”
In 2016, in a New Scientist article titled ‘Stop buying organic food if you really want to save the planet’, Michael Le Page noted that “There is little worth in switching over to organic food. These foods are not only climate-negative, but also they aren’t any more nutritious than conventional foods.”
In 2012, scientists at Stanford University, California, published a meta study in the Annals of Internal Medicine on 237 researches comparing organic and non-organic food. Their findings revealed that there was no evidence that the former was more nutritious than the latter. Also, even though conventional foods did contain more pesticides, they were within permitted limits. A lot of people believe that the production of organic food will not allow the use of chemical fertilisers or pesticides. However, organic food production still allows a minimal amount of chemicals in order to develop a reasonable amount of produce. Research made by the British and Swedish food agencies has found that organic food has not been considered safer compared to food produced via conventional means.
Organic wheat is less nutritious than conventionally farmed wheat, and cultivating it releases larger amounts of greenhouse gases. A lot of the ‘buy organic’ viewpoint is not based on science. There is no reliable research to prove that eating organic is health-positive. The logic being put forward is simply that chemical fertilisers and pesticides are bad for human health, so the food that is grown without them is healthy to consume. The reality is there are no consensual reports that link organic food to health benefits.
Also, high levels of bacteria have been found in the production of organic foods. For this reason, the consumption of organic foods has been linked to the risk of ingesting E. coli bacteria. It would therefore be harmful for children as well as pregnant women as they have vulnerable immune systems.