Autonomous work - Aurelie

Hello,
For the autonomous work, I started to watch videos on Ororo and I found an interesting one entitled “Is organic Really Better ? Healthy Food or Trendy Scam ?”.

The video talks about veggies only and not about animal meats. It presents the consumption of organics food as moral and social responsibility because it is supposed to be more natural and more ethical. But what does “organic” means ? Different regions have different definitions and rules about organics food, for example “Agriculture Bio”, “USDA organic”, “NASAA certified organic”, … In general, it is not genetically modified, there’re no synthetic fertilizer and synthetic pesticides, instead farmers use traditional technics.

Then, we can ask ourselves, organics food are really healthier ?
The video present different ideas about it :
- The natural cultivation is supposed to make food more nutritious and better for the health because studies proved that organic food contain more antioxidants.
- Organic food can have a higher concentrations of vitamin C and omega3 but it’s negligible, there’s no significant difference with conventional food.

Well, we just need to eat more fruits and vegetable instead of junk food for a good health than being worry for “how they were produce” according to the video.

Is organic food more natural ?
People buy organic food to avoid conventional food that are supposed to have more pesticide residue. But, in the organic and conventional production pesticides are used, and most of organic pesticides are natural toxins but there are synthetic substances as well. So, there’s no difference between the organic pesticide and the regular pesticide. Many studies have proved that the danger from pesticides for an adult was similar to drinking a glass of wine every three months, so our lives are not really in danger. But we continue to demand strict standards for our food. Then, organic food is well controlled, and the majority of samples have no residues. We need to be careful against contamination form bacteria and fungi that is more dangerous.

Is organic food better for the environment ?
Organic and conventional production involve the same energy consumption, land need and have the same impact of greenhouse gas emission. No production method is better than a another for the environment.

The demand of organic food is increasing, and it can lead to a production method that is less sustainable. So, organic versus conventional food isn’t an objective discussion. But for consumers buying organic feels right, they want to choose the best things for their future generation and for the planet. Then, people think that conventional food is bad.

To conclude, the video proposes a solution for the best way to produce healthy food efficiently. It is to combine the best features of both productions and for the consumer, choosing his food depends on what he expects from. So, buying more veggies is better for the health and it’s not necessarily a question of organic food or not.

Hi Aurélie
For my autonomous work from Thursday, I watched a video about the death of bees, and which impact have the insecticides on them. Then I search articles about organic insecticides, and one of the most used, named spinosad, is very toxical for them.
Organic food is just a way to make more money for people who don't look further than the label of the products.
Moreover, organic veggies are a little bit more fragile than the others, and they need more packaging. In the organic shelves in the supermarkets, all the veggies are packed with plastic, it is very eco friendly !

Hi Aurelie,

which section is the organic programme in and how long is it?