Democratic Underground - If that's the case, then why do you, yourself, garden with 'minimal environmental impact' in mind?

I mean, what difference does it make? Might as well bathe the whole backyard in Roundup. Why not? :shrug:

To me- it's pretty obvious that whenever possible, buying food with less crap sprayed on it- whatever that crap may be- is probably a better move. People should wash their greens thoroughly, and cook the shit out of their meat, whether it is 'organic' or not, because E Coli can turn up anywhere (if you've got any data proving e coli is more prevalent on organic produce, do share)

And lots of us wouldn't send our kids off to the boy scouts (or to a priest) OR drink 'truckloads of soda', either, but nice try with the lovely assortment of bright red herrings.

Speaking of data, that's really what the focus should be on, not shit-flinging (organic or otherwise):

http://www.consumersunion.org/food/organicsumm.htm

Frequency of Positive Samples: All three data sets showed striking, highly statistically significant differences between market categories in the percent of samples that had at least one pesticide residue. Conventionally grown samples consistently had residues far more often than other categories. Overall, across 8 fruits and 12 vegetable crops, 73 percent of USDA's conventionally grown samples had residues. For five crops (apples, peaches, pears, strawberries and celery) more than 90 percent of samples had residues. Cal DPR (using less sensitive analytical methods) found residues in 31 percent, and CU found residues in 79 percent, of their conventionally grown samples. Organically grown samples consistently had far smaller percentages with residues: 23, 6.5 and 27 percent in the USDA, DPR and CU data, respectively. In the two data sets that included samples of the third category, residues were found in 47 percent of the USDA IPM/NDR samples and 51 percent of the CU IPM/NDR samples.

***

Our analysis shows convincingly that organically grown foods have fewer and generally lower pesticide residues than conventionally grown foods. This pattern was consistent across all three independent data sets. Organic foods typically contain pesticide residues only one-third as often as conventionally grown foods do. Foods marketed with an IPM or NDR claim fall in between organic and conventional foods in both the frequency of residues and residue levels. Organic samples are also far less likely to contain multiple residues than conventional or IPM/NDR foods are.

Reply #21: If that's the case, then why do you, yourself, garden with 'minimal environmental impact' in mind? [View All]