Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashartus
For the most part pesticide risks are overstated by organic food supporters - that doesn't mean there's no risk, but there are some pretty big safety factors built into the maximum allowable pesticide residues on food. How much risk there really is would depend on the specific pesticide used, how much below the limits the residue on the food is, and how well it is washed.
You get more toxic chemicals including carcinogens just from what is naturally produced in the plants - one study I read suggested on average about 99% of the total toxic potential of food could be from the naturally present chemicals. Also, organic foods can have pesticides, they just have to be non-synthetic (which does not automatically mean less toxic). So saying that organic foods are safer because of the absence of pesticides is probably at the very least an over-simplification.
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I find the whole organic food argument to be similar to that of the anti vaccine movement. People are lucky that today/in the west they can afford to have these stupid opinion, we don't have to deal with food shortages or disease outbreaks. There is a reason for that and it's modern medical and farming practices. If they could see what life was like before these improvements I think they would have a different opinion.
Everyone is an expert until it really starts to affect their lives. Pesticides are bad, okay fine, lets ban them and see what happens when the price of food skyrockets and you can no longer afford to feed your family. Vaccines cause autism, lets stop immunizations until your child dies or becomes disabled from measles. There are perfectly logical reasons that life spans and standards of living have done nothing but increase and stepping backwards in time isn't going to help continue that trend.