The disadvantages of organic foods

At the moment organic foods are too expensive when compared to other food products that use pesticides and genetic engineering, because of crop failures since farmers cannot use any chemicals like pesticides. Since larger companies have bought into the Organic it is overselling and being treated more like a brand then what it should be a way of life, because corporations are just going to use it for their greedy desires and inflate prices up to 50% when compared to non organic products.

There is not a real variety, because the organic food market is still quite small and still growing. Organic food is not that much more nutritional, then only difference is that it doesn't contain pesticides, no food coloring and there are no preservatives. Organic foods are also going to have great difficulty in meeting greater demands from the natural commercial habits. Because organic food is controlled by the natural cycles and there is more care about the soil in the future when there is more demand for organic food products the ability to meet the demand is going to be a chronic problem, since there is less yield per acre for each crop that is organically grown.
Organic food might be more nutritious, but in this world pesticides, antibiotics, genetic engineering are necessary for things like ridding the world of hunger or the high demands of food products.
1At the moment organic foods are too expensive when compared to other food products that use pesticides and genetic engineering, because of crop failures since farmers cannot use any chemicals like pesticides. Since larger companies have bought into the Organic it is overselling and being treated more like a brand then what it should be a way of life, because corporations are just going to use it for their greedy desires and inflate prices up to 50% when compared to non organic products.
There is not a real variety, because the organic food market is still quite small and still growing. Organic food is not that much more nutritional, then only difference is that it doesn't contain pesticides, no food coloring and there are no preservatives. Organic foods are also going to have great difficulty in meeting greater demands from the natural commercial habits. Because organic food is controlled by the natural cycles and there is more care about the soil in the future when there is more demand for organic food products the ability to meet the demand is going to be a chronic problem, since there is less yield per acre for each crop that is organically grown.
Organic food might be more nutritious, but in this world pesticides, antibiotics, genetic engineering are necessary for things like ridding the world of hunger or the high demands of food products.
2The main drawbacks with organic foods are often presented like this:
1. Organic Foods are too expensive.
2. They are not freely available (as in they are difficult to get hold of)
3. Who can be certain they are truly organic anyway? It says so on the label, but I'm not sure it is really true.
4. Organic food is no better for you (nutritionally speaking) than non-organic food.
Whilst I realise it is not possible to go into each of these arguments in depth in a piece of this length, I'd like to offer my observations on each point.
Expensive?
Firstly, organic food does not have to be expensive. It depends what sort of food you buy. A vegetarian diet is widely recognised to be general cheaper than one that contains meat or fish.
I'm not a vegetarian myself but I've tried to eat less meat over the years and now buy more pulses, grains and whole wheat foods. It's certainly true that if you use these as staples, you can cut your grocery bill by a vast amount. Even if you're buying organic.
The trick is to either buy in bulk (so the cost comes down) or get together with other consumers (neighbours, friends e.t.c.) form a cooperative and benefit from wholesale prices - or do both of these things. This partly addresses the problem of organic foods not being freely available. If you place a bulk order with a local supplier over the Internet, for example, they will usually deliver.
Availability?
There's also the option of growing your own fruit and vegetables which we do in our family. You may not feel you have the skills to do this right away. You may have to re-learn providing for yourself in this way (I certainly did). But it is possible - and there's a lot of help out there in the shape of books, Youtube vids, evening classes and so on. You may not have a plot of land to grow on. But even this is not necessarily a barrier these days, as there are lots of interesting ideas for growing fruit and veg in containers.
If you don't have a vegetable plot yourself, you may find a local community garden you could tap into. Or share one with your neighbour. Twice as much fun.
Is it really organic?
Not everyone may realise this, but the organic certification and verification process which leads to a 'Soil Certification' symbol is really quite extensive. Therefore if you look out for this label in my opinion you can't go wrong.
I'm writing for a global audience here, so you may have to find out which symbol organic certification bodies use in your country. At any rate, to my knowledge the whole process is carried out very carefully and is generally reliable.
Organic food is no better for you...
This is an easy argument to answer and I'll give a mother's response. When your baby is born you want to give it something to eat which is as far as humanly possible, untainted. If you can, you feed your baby yourself, you know that a mother's milk is the best protection against disease and malnutrition that you could possibly get. You wouldn't dream of adding pesticides to that, would you? So why do it with food for grown ups?
3As a parent, buyer, and believer in organic foods I myself can find many disadvantages of organic products. They are hard to find, expensive, lack in a good variety, and have no shelf life. Most grocery chains do not carry organics, while others stack them right beside our not so healthy choices, or they are shunned to a dark, empty corner of the store. The price is a little more than reasonable.
We have a middle class household income and can afford most food organic. There also is not a good variety of brands and flavors of organic products.
Want a healthy, organic glass of milk? Well, then you must drive fifteen miles to the nearest overly populated city to buy it. We live in the suburb of a very big city and have four different grocery chains and one small town store and only one carries organic products. It is discouraging that to be healthy you have to pay. You turn on the t.v. only to be told the latest diet craze, how to excersize, and what to eat. But no one told you how inconvient it really will be just to feed your family a healthier food. This is a huge disadvantage of buying organic, especially in our "on the go" lifestyle.
Logically one would think the price of pesticides far outweighs that of the natural goodness mother earth created for FREE. But, once again the price of organic scares many of us families on a budget off. It is much cheaper to buy that carton of strawberries for half the price of organic. Over time I see that a healthier lifestyle is feasible with organic by learning which fruits and vegatables are the most likely to absorb high amounts of chemicals, and buying only those in organic. When you eat healthy, junk foods become obsolete and the money you would normally spend can be used for the healthier choices.
Well, it is fair to say that going down the organic food isle will not turn into a ten minute debate with your six year old about what box of cereal they can or can not have. You usually have a few choices or flavors or a fresh vegetable selection not even a quarter of the hunky, hormone ridden foods. Our lives have become constant decisions about the color, flavor, or brand of food we eat that it is shock to some to have only one choice. If organic is going to go anywhere, it is a matter of lifestyle change and braking out of it's black and white world and into the 21st century of color and 3-D.
Overall the disadvantages of eating organic are all things we can easily overcome. After all it is a lifestyle and that means a change. I will drive the extra ten minutes to try and save my six month old from eating bug spray. The price I can over come because I used to spend twice as much on chips, cookies, and soda that I no longer buy except on rare occasions. And is that grocery store trip a lot shorter and more peaceful with the kids? Why yes it is. I have a third of the choices I did when I didn't buy organic. Organic has a long way to go to get back to the way nature intended it to be, but I am willing to sacrifice.