Talk:Organic food

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Jerome Rodale

More should be here about the roots of organic farming. All we have now is 'Organic farming was pioneered by alternative medicine promoter Jerome Rodale (né Cohen) blah blah etc.'   I'm not about to write it myself (yet?), but sooner or later something should be added about Albert Howard, the "father of organic farming". He might have been a bit amused by the appellation himself, considering that his "Indore method" of soil-building and pest control was just one method of organic farming, and he'd probably agree that using only natural substances in farming and nothing more, while blundering about the work in credulous ignorance and following the herd of whatever cult appeals to you that way would be like bricks without mortar. Howard was big on pragmatic empiricism. Things get murky. You might say Rodale was the Marianne Williamson of organic farming, and Howard was like Schucman and Thetford. Or Jesus. Ultimately Satan of course, since Schucman, Thetford and Jesus were all tools of Satan :)   . But they're only analogous in congruence of form, not essence, since A Course In Miracles can be empirically disproven by any maniac with a machine gun, and An Agricultural Testament is more scientific than Archimedes. If my attitude rubs people the wrong way, I'll paste the cut-out silly bits into the Uncyclopedia.

Honey

Honeybees fly literally for miles (up to five kilometers in normal conditions, further during a dearth) to forage for nectar and pollen. Because bees are furry, statically attractive little animals (useful for pollen collection), their bodies readily gather all sorts of environmental particles. If you don't see what that entails, click the link and read the article. Happy to have helped, Alec Sanderson (talk) 14:32, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Drawbacks

Organic farming may well create jobs - but how many of them will be seasonal/low skill/low wage rather than 'diverse to suit the skillset and abilities' of all those seeking employment? 82.44.143.26 (talk) 18:15, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

"This has three drawbacks: (1) Manure comes from farm animals, which means any crops grown with it can't be called vegan;" How is that actually a drawback? "(2) higher shadow land use, as mentioned above;" I am a "conventional" farmer, in a country where manure slurry is conventionally used as part of mixed farming to fertilise own- or neighbouring farm tillage or arable land; I have never heard anyone use the term "shadow land" - as though somehow we are all hiding the fact that we are making efficient use of resources! " and (3) manure particles can wind up on the final product, resulting in increased risk of foodborne illnesses such as salmonella or E. coli." Yah, but no. This is why we have quality control and traceability schemes for agriculture, and on tillage or pasture it doesn't make a damn difference. You do have farms in internetland, right? Oaty McOatface (talk) 23:45, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

The term "shadow land" appears in an earlier section of this article, which cites this: http://www.marklynas.org/2012/07/how-land-inefficient-is-organic-agriculture/ . As far as contamination risk for manure-fertilized produce, there is this: https://cnsnews.com/news/article/organic-food-has-significantly-higher-contamination-study-finds . --Tracer (talk) 05:38, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Nitrate leeching

The Nitrate Leeching subsection under "Drawbacks" cites the following study:

http://www.pnas.org/content/103/12/4522.full#B2 This study does not appear to say or support any of the statements being made in the "Nitrate leeching" section. --Tracer (talk) 05:27, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

to quote the referenced study "The results of our study indicate that use of organic fertilizers in orchards significantly reduces harmful nitrate leaching". The article is about the process by which the leaching is reduced. I have thus ammended the leeching section to represent that. Really all references to leaching should be removed or listed as an organic benefit or an actually supporting reference found (not for orchards presumably). It was a clear case of someone not reading the referenced article past the first few paragraphs and seeing what they wanted to see. --[KC] Jan 9 2019

Supplements

Something I've noticed, which would constitute a reason organic food can be less nutritious, is that organic products seem less likely to be supplemented with vitamins, minerals, etc, than non-organic. I've mainly noticed this with plant milk, where non-organic products are normally supplemented with B vitamins and calcium but organic products don't include "chemicals" such as vitamins and minerals. I'm not sure if this is true of other commonly supplemented products like flour and salt, but might be worth a closer look. --Annanoon (talk) 10:41, 1 April 2020 (UTC)