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Organic? What's the big
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Princeton
Dining Services
would like to buy more organic and eco-friendly food, but they need
your
support!
You may have
seen organic
products on the counter or at your local supermarket, but have you ever
really
considered what it means to be organic? Do they have advantages over
standard
products? If so, what are
they? What factors beyond
"organic" define an eco-friendly food?
Organic food is grown without chemicals: no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. Animals are raised without antibiotics, hormones, or other drugs. Even some types of seafood are better to eat than others; you can avoid fisheries that are being overfished or harvested using environmentally harmful methods. Click on the table below to find more information on the wide range of benefits of organic products.
HEALTH BENEFITS
Risks from chemical contamination
Most crops in
the US are
grown with the aid of various synthetic chemicals including pesticides,
fertilizers,
herbicides and fungicides. Toxic residues from these chemicals are
found on
conventionally grown fruit and vegetables. The Food Quality Protection Act
(1996)
recognizes that many of the chemicals used present unacceptably high
health
risks, particularly to infants and children. According
to the Environmental
Protection Agency, 60% of herbicides, 90% of fungicides and 30% of
insecticides are carcinogenic.
Chemical
residues
from
crops contaminate water sources.
Agricultural runoff has affected the drinking water of over 14
million
Americans in the Corn Belt and Chesapeake Bay regions alone. A recent survey in America found that
more than 90% of water sources (and more than 50% of wells) contained
one or
more pesticides. The same was true
for more than 90% of fish.
Reducing synthetic chemical use by supporting organic
agriculture will
result in higher quality, healthier water supplies.
Risks from supplemental hormones
To increase
yields,
conventionally raised farm animals are also treated with hormones. These hormones may have harmful effects
on human health. For example,
treating cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) results in a two- to tenfold increase
in levels
of another hormone, IGF-1, in their milk. High
levels of IGF-1 are associated with an increased risk
of cancer in humans. Organic
farming practices, which ban the use of such antibiotics and hormones,
avoid
these serious health risks.
Risks from overuse of antibiotics
Antibiotics
and other
drugs are routinely given to conventionally raised farm animals to
promote
growth and prevent infections that spread rapidly under unnaturally
stressful
and crowded conditions. Many of
these antibiotics are also used to treat human diseases, and their widespread
agricultural
use significantly enhances the evolution of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria. Humans can become infected
with
resistant bacteria through undercooked meat or contaminated soil and
groundwater. Antibiotic resistance
threatens our ability to fight these infections.
An example of
this public
health threat is the use of antibiotics on poultry farms.
Since 1995, drugs
called
fluoroquinolones have been used to treat E. coli infections in chickens and turkeys. This use has increased the number of
fluoroquinolone-resistant pathogenic bacteria, which cause serious
illness in
humans. Currently,
fluoroquinolones (including Cipro, the drug used to treat anthrax) are
among
the most important drugs for treating human infections.
Unless we stop the widespread
agricultural use of these antibiotics, they will no longer be effective
for
human medicine. Although the FDA, with
the support
of the American Medical Association, has proposed a ban on the use of
fluoroquinolones, currently the only way for consumers to avoid
poultry
exposed to these drugs is through certified antibiotic-free or
USDA-certified
organic meat.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Conventional
agricultural
practices contribute to water pollution affecting not only our health
but the
environment as well. Only 1% of pesticides applied to crops actually
reach the
pests they target, and 99% of these chemicals enter the environment. Contamination
of soil and groundwater changes the terrestrial and aquatic
environment and
poses threats to native wildlife. Many species dependent on high water
quality
are now endangered. Fertilizer run-off has contributed to an 8,000
square mile
"dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico that has killed tons of fish
through oxygen deprivation.
Toxic residues
build up in
ecosystems through the food chain, as species at the bottom ingest the
chemicals, then higher species ingest these animals.
Concentrations build until the diet of animals at the top of
the food chain contains an elevated, sometimes lethal, level of toxins. For example, before it was banned, the
pesticide DDT
almost caused the extinction of the peregrine falcon due to its
detrimental
effect on their eggshells.
Pesticides
used in growing
common crops such as fruit,
corn, cotton,
soybeans, and tobacco have been found to have high toxicity to
birds,
mammals, and fish. Pesticide use
kills not only pests, but also their natural enemies, many of which are
now
endangered due to ingested toxins and loss of food.
As
pests continually develop new evasion tactics and resistance, we resort
to
stronger more powerful chemicals with more detrimental side effects. US
farmers
use more than 700 million pounds of pesticides on crops annually, more
than
double the quantity used 30 years ago (according to EPA estimates),
with a 10
to 100-fold increase in potency.
The
USDA's regulations for organic food also prohibit genetically modified
organisms (GMOs). Genetically
modified crops have had specific parts of their genomes altered in
order to
improve growth, enhance their nutritional value, or increase their
resistance
to pests. However, many
of the risks of GMOs remain untested.
Environmental risks of GMOs include gene transfer to wild
relatives,
evolution of resistance to pest-control genes, and poisoned wildlife. For example, pollen from corn
genetically modified for pest resistance has been shown to reduce the
growth of
swallowtail butterfly larvae.
Organic
agriculture protects both humans and the environment from these unknown
risks
by using sustainable
methods such as crop rotation, natural soil enrichment, and pest
predators. These
methods protect native biodiversity and promote soil
stability and fertility without the leaching of essential nutrients
that occurs
in conventional systems.
ANIMAL WELFARE
Conditions for
raising
animals on commercial
farms and
feedlots prevent them from following a normal rate of growth and
development. Battery farmed hens live
indoors in
cages too small for them to even turn around, and are bred to reach
four pounds
in just six weeks, twice as fast as they were raised 50 years ago. Many birds die because their heart and
lungs cannot support this rate of growth, and the unnatural indoor
conditions
compromises their immune systems, leading to increased use of
antibiotics and
vaccines.
Commerically
raised cattle
are fed diets high in grain to promote fast growth for marketable
"marbled
beef." However, because high-grain
diets have less fiber than a cow's natural diet, the animal suffers
from
high acid buildup (which favors pathogenic E. coli) and in some cases
sudden
death.
Organic
farming uses
natural methods to maximize production, such as keeping cattle on their
preferred grass-fed diet and allowing chickens to free range. Generally organic farming means better
conditions for animals, and all certified organic meat comes from
animals that
have only eaten organic food.
TASTE
While taste
depends on many
factors, such as the variety of the plant, when it is harvested, and
how far it
is shipped, organic foods have the benefits of being grown in healthy
soil with
no artificial additives. Surveys
have
shown that people notice a significant improvement in flavor when
comparing
organic to non-organic products.
For example, a consumer taste test found that organically
grown apples were less tart at harvest and sweeter after six months
of
storage than conventional apples.
Consumer
surveys have also
shown that people
prefer
the taste of grass-fed beef over conventional grain-fed beef. Not only is grass-fed beef lower in
fat, it also contains higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid and
omega-3
fatty acids, both associated with reduced risk of heart disease,
stroke, and cancer.
Even restaurants
are becoming more aware of the advantages of organic food. In a 1997 survey by Food and Wine
magazine, 76% of chefs questioned said they "actively seek out
organically
grown ingredients." And a
number of the 50
best restaurants ranked by Gourmet magazine in 2001 support organic
techniques and sustainable agriculture.
Another issue
associated
with organic and sustainable food production is eco-friendly seafood. For
centuries, people have assumed that the vast size of the oceans and
reproductive capacity of fish and other marine animals would protect
them from
overharvesting and extinction. But
today, 22% of commercial fisheries are over-exploited or depleted and
another
44% are fully exploited, meaning that fishing communities and the
general
public are currently paying for previous poor management in the form of
lost
jobs and significantly reduced catches.
One major
problem is
commercial depletion. Most
fisheries
around the world are on the verge of collapsing, if they have not
already. For example, a massive
decline in
Northern Cod in the 1990s led to the collapse of the Atlantic
ground fish
fisheries. This fishery collapse has
had serious environmental and economic consequences, such as an
apparently
permanent change to the ecosystem and decades of severe recession in
Eastern
Canada. Unsustainable fishing practices may be causing irreversible
declines in
many species worldwide.
The second
major problem
with many fisheries is environmental damage. Current
fishing
methods catch and kill large numbers of other marine species, often
many
more than the target species. Many species accidentally caught as
"bycatch" are facing imminent extinction including sea turtles and
albatrosses. Fortunately, there
are techniques that only catch individuals of a certain size and reduce
the
incidental catch of other species, thereby allowing juvenile fish and
threatened bycatch species to grow and reproduce. Future
generations also deserve the bounty of the oceans.
To find out
which fish you
can safely eat with a clean conscience get the Seafood
Guide (NY region) from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
LINKS
If you are
concerned about
what you eat and how it affects the world around you, find out about
other
environmentally friendly products.
You can read more about these issues at:
The USDA National Organic Program
Mothers
and Others'
Top Ten List of Fruits and Vegetables to Buy Organic
A Shoppers
Guide to
Pesticides in Produce
Top Ten
Eco-Friendly
Reasons to Buy Organic Meat & Dairy
Eat Wild (Information about
pasture-based
farming)
Food and
Environment (Union of Concerned Scientists)
Genetically
Engineered Foods Allowed on the Market
Antibiotic
Resistance (Environmental Defense fact sheet)
Monterey
Bay
Aquarium Seafood Watch Issues
This
information on
organic agriculture and sustainable seafood has been compiled by
members of Greening
Princeton. If you'd like to
join our organization, contact greening(at)princeton.edu.