Is Organic Food the Problem?

A trend that has recently taken over worldwide is the ?Organic Food Trend'. Everyone has heard something about organic food, good or bad, but most people have no idea what organic food even is. Many individuals purchase the organic options because they've heard it's better for them, while others choose the non-organic options because it's cheaper. It turns out, organic food might be the best bet. Is Organic Food a Scam? was written by Vani Hari and discusses the importance of choosing organic foods. While reading through her article, there were many things that stood out, but three main points in particular. The first was that pesticide usage has many harmful effects, second was the importance of pregnant woman eating all organic, and third how all livestock should be bought organic as well as produce. Pesticide usage is a very high concern for many consumers today. According to this article, in conventional food, pesticide residues are often left on food even after it is washed (Hari 2017). With organic food, the use of pesticides is very rare because other methods are required to be used first (Hari 2017). Organic farmers incorporate a mixture of different techniques such as crop rotation, mechanical weeding, and cover crops in order to prevent the growth of pests (Gorrell 2011). This article also mentions how pesticides aren't the only thing that hides within conventional foods. When choosing certified organic food products, people are automatically straying away from many dangerous food additives (Hari 2017). Organic standards have prohibited all useless and harmful food additives when processing organic foods (Muscanescu 2013). This means that we can guarantee that people won't be ingesting the harmful toxins of pesticides and dangerous additives they would be consuming in conventional foods. Another topic that Vani Hari emphasizes is the importance of pregnant woman eating organic foods. It stated that mothers that were highly exposed to organophosphates, a commonly used pesticide, conceived children with a thinner grey matter than most children (Hari 2017). Insecticides are of such high concern because of their targeting of the nervous system and their potential to increase the vulnerability of children's developing brains (Fortin MC and others 2013). Hari also brings up the fact that women who ingest high amounts of organophosphates during pregnancy had negative effects on their children's neurobehavioral development and intelligence quotient (IQ) levels, as well as possible development of ADHD (Hari 2017). This was tested by measuring the amount of dialkyl phosphate (DAP) metabolites in urine that was collected from the mother during pregnancy, as well as from the children until the age of 7 (Bouchard and others 2011). Children who were exposed the highest amount of maternal DAP concentrations showed an average deficit of 7.0 IQ points in comparison to those with lower amounts of DAP (Bouchard and others 2011). Eating a diet of organic foods when pregnant has turned out to be the optimal way to go in order to keep the baby safe before giving birth. Lastly, Vani Hari mentions the importance of buying organic meat and dairy products, exclaiming that conventional livestock can be contaminated with even more pesticides than produce is contaminated with (Hari 2017). The largest difference between organic and conventional animal products is the ban on synthetic amino acids and GMOs (Galgano and others 2016). Hari also states that most conventional animals are raised on growth-promoting antibiotics and steroids that have been found in meat too (Hari 2017). Organic products on the other hand won't contain these residues. Organic livestock, such as meat and dairy, must be strictly fed only organically grown crops and are prohibited from using antibiotics (Gorrell 2011). Lowering the amount of chemicals and antibiotics that are going in the body is as easy as buying organic foods. Is Organic Food a Scam? by Vani Hari was a completely accurate article based on the topics that were pointed out within this paper. With many peer-reviewed journals that were found based off of the information she claimed, every single one of them backed what Hari was saying throughout her article. Although organic food might be slightly more expensive, it is ultimately worth the price. We don't want to be ingesting the high amounts of pesticides in produce and especially don't want to be consuming the antibiotics present in conventional livestock. We have the resources to not ingest these harmful toxins through organic foods and people should take advantage of this. Many pesticides that are used on conventional products are strongly linked to harmful diseases and health issues, from obesity to cancer (Hari 2017). As time goes by, more pesticides will be made, and this could have a very dangerous outcome. If we don't deeply assess the effects these pesticides might have on our health, implementing them on conventional products could be a serious issue. The use of pesticides, antibiotics and hormones will always be used, but it's up to us to make the right choice for our health.

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