Organic Foods Essay Example for Free

Organic Foods Essay When we see the word ? organic on a carton of an organic whole milk or on a plastic bottle of Stonyfield Farms organic low fat yogurt, the words and phrases such as ? pure, ? chemical-free, ? natural and ? healthy naturally comes to mind, and there is little doubt in these assumptions. Organic foods are dairy, produce and poultry products that were treated with no pesticides, growth hormones, or antibiotics. Organic foods have been generating a lot of hype because of the food safety that it offers an individual. Another reason is the documented claims proving organic foods having a generally fresher taste than their conventional counterparts. And lastly, organic foods offer much more healthy benefits, meaning it has a higher nutritional amount than a non? organic food. The question that potential organic consumers seem to ask pertaining to this issue is that is it worth paying for. Even with its higher cost, organic foods are a worthwhile choice for a better health and nutrition. Various tests by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization demonstrated that some apples, such as the Golden Delicious, scored higher taste scores when grown organically. Also, because organic farms tend to be smaller, they often sell their products closer to the point of harvest. Thus, organic fruits and vegetables taste more farm fresh than comparable conventional produce. However, organic foods might also have more flavor because organic farmers often breed with taste instead of marketability as the primary factor. Conventional tomatoes, for example, are often bred to be perfectly red and round, to match the ideal appearance of a tomato, meaning that taste is an attribute that has a lower priority in these products. In addition to crop diversity and selection practices, organic farming emphasizes soil nutrition, which can positively influence the taste of the food. The main criticism surrounding organic food is that its costs are expensive and is elitist, because of how only rich people can afford it. The magazine Consumer Reports stated in its article When It Pays to Buy Organic that typical organic foods costs from 50% to 100% the price of conventional items, but according to a Primary Health Care article, published studies concluded that an organic produce is packing with a significant increase in nutrients and dry matter. Organic produce has 27% more Vitamin C, 29. 3% more magnesium, and 21% more iron compared to the non-organic; also contain 26% more dry matter, which means that it does not shrink as quickly when cooked as there is less water that will evaporate. Organic food may seem to be expensive at first glance, but when you look at all the factors that come with the product, it is a better buy in the end. Knowing what organic products to buy, and what not to buy will also help out cut the unnecessary purchases of everything organic. The United States of Department of Agriculture listed apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach and strawberries as the dirty dozen that should be consumed as often as organic. The USDAs own testing reports that their conventional counterparts accumulate a good number of pesticide residues, which has numerous negative effects. The USDA continues by suggesting to consume organic meat and poultry to help avoid the effects of the mad-cow disease, and buying organic baby food in order to prevent the baby from having exposure to toxins. Organic seafood, on the other hand, were not suggested to be purchased, for there is not enough documentation that it has significant differences with its conventional counterpart. The health benefits that organic products offer just outweigh the costs so far. In 2002, Danny Asami et al.of the Department of Food Science and Technology did a research on the amount of phenolic content (which provides protection against cancer) and Vitamin C content of conventional and organic produces, and concluded that the fruits that were grown organically possessed significantly higher concentrations of both phenolic and Vitamin C. Organic tomatoes have much more lycopene in them, and organic fruits and vegetables contain more flavonoids. Organic milk has its perks too, for Danish Institute of Agricultural Research proclaimed that it has higher amounts of Vitamin E, beta-carotene and several antioxidants than regular whole milk. The food safety that organic products offer cant be denied either. Pesticides that are often found on non-organic foods have its obvious negative effects, and also some subtle ones. Such effects like immune suppression, hormone disruption, neurological damages are the risks that pesticide residues are leaving in a non-organic food. New studies also show that pesticides are capable of being passed from the womans womb to its offspring, which may cause numerous implications to the fetuses brain. Unfortunately, organic products do contain pesticide remains at all, however for the people who seek to reduce the risks of a pesticide residue, organic products are a much better option. Organic foods can not only give us peace of mind, but it provides us with such substance that non-organic food is lacking. It gives us the freshness that nature has intended for us all along, and in a society where health gives us power, we cannot go wrong on eating healthy and enjoying it at the same time. Our health is worth everything, so while the cost may be too steep, the profits that it brings back to us are far more redeeming.