this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
222 points (97.4% liked)

Asklemmy

43781 readers
877 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Same thing with people thinking that organic food is healthier. Organic food might be good for the environment, but not necessarily the climate or your health.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I worked in produce as a quality inspector for a couple years. Organic generally just means lower quality for higher price. No one is regulating it as far as I know, they can just skip pesticides, do everything else the same and charge more for the same product that actually cost them less to produce. We refered to it as a hillarious scam when the boss wasnt around.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That depends on where you live though. Here in Denmark, as an example, we have a certificate called "Statskontrolleret ΓΈkologisk" which basically translates to "Government-certified organic". There are specific guidelines and rules that need to be followed, to be allowed to use this seal on your product.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

We have a similar system in the US. The US department of agriculture has a stamp they put on food that has strict criteria for what goes in it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't it cost more to produce because you lose more crops to pests?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

No, thats just the bullshit they use to justify it.

Anything not looking good enough gets sent to a secondary outlet and is sold as is with no organic labels. The stuff that is a grade below that gets juiced ( dont drink fruit juice that you didnt make yourself if you can help it...). They are not losing a single pennie, they are making out like thieves

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Organic has less pesticides. Which is probably healthier no? I mostly buy non organic, but always get organic for certain foods like strawberries and oats since they tend to have so much pesticides used on them.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Organic has less pesticides.

Less pesticides also means more bacteria and more bug poop. There is a reason why they use pesticides, after all.

Even if there are trace amounts of pesticides left, you can just wash the produce, which you should always do anyway. Same reason you wash the organic produce to get rid of bug stuff...

The trace amounts of bug poop or pesticides really makes no difference when it comes to your health.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Not necessarily less pesticides, but "natural" pesticides. In my opinion, organic food is probably either equivalent or better than not-organic, but I don't think there's much scientific consensus.

People tend to think "organic" means that a food item is free from the ills of industrial agriculture, but it really doesn't. It's the same thing with people directing hate at GMO's: most complaints people have about them are really complaints that apply to industrial ag whether GMO or not.