Sunday, September 16, 2007

Not pretty...

While I have been willing to allow the market to decide whether organic food is a good idea or not, I have never been persuaded it is better in any way than conventional food. Well, it turns out I am a virtual weeny in this debate. Peruse this anti-organic broadside in the Australian science magazine Cosmos:
THE SURPRISING FACT IS that this mass migration to organic food has not been on the back of scientific evidence. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find comprehensive evidence that organic food is healthier – either for us or the planet. Nevertheless, in the public consciousness, organic farming is unquestioningly bundled with the reigning moral imperatives of sustainability, protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gases.
If you don't want to read the whole article, it is well (and equally brutally) summarized here, by Ron Bailey at Reason.

I didn't realize I was being so even-handed in my questioning of organic.

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