Comments on: Are Organic Foods Really Any Safer?

Thalia Assuras Reports Some Scientists Believe Organic Foods Are No Healthier

[gordon.couger]

*** the flames I have something to say: I am a retired farmer. I have farmed using organic methods & managed an organic farm in the 70's. I bought my first cattle in 1957. My wife & I are both actively involved in faming as crop share landlords. One of us is an evil corporate farmer as it is the only reasonable way to mange a farm among 3 siblings and assure that the land be passed on to our kids in a way that doesn't make a mess for them & the people farming.

I had long discussions with 3 generations of family that farmed & ranched some of the same land since 1871 when my great grandmother at 15 & her husband rode 3 days from the rail head & founded one of the oldest ranches still run as a family operation in the world. They all thought as I do that organic farmers don't understand what they are trying to do and don't realize their methods won't feed half the population we have today not to mention twice that many we will have in 50 years.

Organic agriculture accounts for about 2% of the acres in the USA yet it is involved in over 30% of the food recalls. Some how that doesn't seem very safe to me. No matter how much they try to blame E. coli O157:H7 on the factory farmer when the facts are in the culprit in food born cases is organic agriculture over half the time. They try to blame it on their neighbors cattle or wild hogs or what ever. But the fact that they don't keep their fences fixed doesn't seem to matter to the believers.


gc

[feelfree1]

brucesmall,

Ingesting poison- not good for you. It's called common sense, and a self-evident truth is not worthy of a lot of effort to study.

If you hope to prove to the contrary, knock yourself out.

[brucesmall]

I bet none of you can point to one peer-reviewed double-blind study showing that organics have any value. Your faith in organics is based upon the hope that it is better. Absent any actual studies, this is called BIAS.

[KLHILL]

Where did this guy get his education? ...look at what he said:

%u201CThe idea that somehow eating organic foods is going to make you healthier, I think is just wishful thinking.%u201D

Why is there an epidemic of Cancers in this country now? It's the food stupid.

All day long we consume: Pesticides, to keep down the bugs, Herbicides, to keep down the weeds, Hormones, to get more production, Antibiotics, to keep the animals alive, Chemical Fertilizers, for better production.

Organic foods have none of these. I recommend that Professor Mark Kantor continue eating as he does, but stop teaching.

[sclaires]

At one time I had a garden where I grew quite a few different vegetables. I know that I ate better and felt better as I didn't use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Now I can't have a garden and am not eating as good as before.

Just in the past day or two I read a story from Australia where a school went additive free for two weeks. The parents were also involved in the experiment. Within 3-4 days the behavior of the students improved as did their grades. After the experiment was over, the students went back to the way they had been before. That just goes to show that all the additives, chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, preservatives, etc does have an effect on behavior and health.

If the companies that manufacture a lot of the food that we eat could take out a lot of the various chemicals they put in, I bet that you would see an improvement in the behavior of a lot of students and also adults. It makes you wonder how many of the prisoners in the various jails, prisons, juvenile detention facilities, etc would improve on an additive free diet. And how much would crime go down??

[andor3]

great comments. As Babette8 points out, CBS recently had an article on organics with a quite different conclusion--so it is not a settled question. Yet this new article does not even acknowledge that Dr. Kantor's opinions are controversial and not universally accepted.

Dr. Kantor makes some bold assertions with no evidence to support them--why does he not cite any research, testing, even anecdotes to back up statements like "There is no health advantage"? He's quoted in some other articles supporting genetically modified wheat. I can't say he's an industry shill but his opinions do line up nicely with BigAgra.

Wonder if somebody "persuaded" CBS to be a little less friendly to those challenging BigAgra?

[feelfree1]

profNYC,

Many good points.

Thanks for commenting.

[profnyc]

I was aghast that this was on TV. Just another example of biased, unfair and inaccurate news reporting. We should all write to CBS and FCC and demand that journalists such as Thalia Assuras either be fired or take a class in basic journalism. Remember that we still own the airwaves and by raising our voices, we can scare the heck out of CEO's.

[drinuk]

I would imagin that this one and only expert is yet another back room boy spouting mis-information from Big Pharma. They dont want chemical free food, they don't want us eating natural products they can't get their dirty hands on and they do not wish for the public to have an opinion. What they do want is to fill us full of junk poisons like Aspartame so that five years down the road we need their bloody useless and expensive Cancer drugs. Back To Nature and Stuff their Chemicals.

[lsajra99]

How about the constant run-off of pesticides sprayed on crops into our ground water, rivers and springs? Wouldn't that be considered unhealthy? How about for the organisms that live in it?

Here in Colorado, South Platte River fish have been found that have both sets of *** organs, speculating the cause is long-term pollution.

[nevgreco]

It might sound funny but I can see were one cleans vegetable before eating...also as a senior stop using cream in your tea or milk or perhaps daily products...it seems to plug up the arteries...Check it out..Nevada Greek..

[profnyc]

One more point, Thalia Assuras Reports Some Scientists Believe Organic Foods Are No Healthier. Once again misleading reporting, it is just ONE scientist.

Furthermore, with regards to the quality of the scientist, Prof. Kanton got his PhD over 25 years ago and still only an associate professor. Clearly he is not one of leaders in his field as anyone who is doing high quality research and is publishing, etc. should be have been promoted to a full professor by now.

[profnyc]

The real problem here lies with the journalist, Thalia Assuras, with her obvious bias by only interviewing one scientist and not doing her job by looking at all of the data that clearly show that pesticides, hormones, etc. are indeed unhealthy for us. It is just another example of the propaganda by a willfully ignorant, scientifically challenged pawn of the corporate media. Instead of doing her homework and actually learning something, she has provided more disinformation on a topic that the overweight, unhealthy American people desperately need to understand better.

[hypnotoad72]

Time will tell.

People once said the Atkins diet was a boon as well. (it wasn't)

But that's comparing apples to oranges; I ought to go out for a proper jog right now...

[susha4]

Not taken into account in the story is the fact that organics usually are not grown in huge mega-farms, but smaller plots, many in family farms. They cannot use pesticides and inorganic fertilizers and have to use crop rotation principals, which cuts WAY down on unfriendly bacteria and makes for healthier, stronger more nutritious plants. There%u2019s also less chance of massive contamination, as with factory farms.

Another thing with organic farming is that it%u2019s more labor intensive (thus the higher costs). Because of this there is more human oversight, no massive picking machines in many cases, but hand picking. Meat packing plants are smaller with more human oversight.

Not considered in the story were processed foods, one of the most troubling areas with conventionally processed foods. Organic foods cannot have the preservatives and controversial additives that are used in regular processed foods. Thus organics are usually more local with shorter shelf lives making for quicker turnover and fresher eating.

ABC should have used more than one expert source for this story, which is a complex one. They have only scratched the surface and may have actually handed out incomplete information. I was not impressed with the lack of depth shown by their one "expert". I do hope that they plan to do more on this subject.

The recent pet food fiasco, one would think, would bring our focus on what additives are going into our foods, where they come from, and how they are processed!

[babette8]

A final puzzling note: I noticed that the CBS news website links to an earlier (April 2) CBS news story which contained a far more accurate and thoughtful analysis of the identical issue. A quote from that story: "Eating organic foods can reduce the amount of pesticides and chemicals that non-organic foods may get into your body. You are also reducing your exposure to antibiotics, genetically modified crops, hormones, and irradiated foods. Still, the long-term health effects aren't clear."

[babette8]

Despite the lonely claim of the lone scientist quoted for the story (did he previously work for the tobacco industry?), most scientists in this area are not so flippant about the effects of pesticides on human health and the environment. For example, the Consumers Union website states in part that: "health risks associated with residues of conventional pesticides in foods are well-established" and that "people who choose organic fruits and vegetables will be exposed to pesticide residues only about one-third as often, and to fewer residues, usually at lower levels, as are people who eat conventional produce."

For another example, take a look at the World Health Organization's report on the dangers of pesticides: http://www.who.int/heli/risks/toxics/chemicals/en/index.html

I am amazed at the poor level of reporting on this story. CBS could have obtained a quote from a knowledgeable expert, such as Dr. Marion Nestle at NYU, regarding the costs and benefits of organic vs. conventional produce. Instead, they produced a fluff piece that glossed over the entire issue.

[feelfree1]

Correction:

"The algae blooms caused by commercial pesticides choke off our water supplies, and kill our fish stocks."

The term "pesticides" should have been "fertilizers"
in this sentence.

[feelfree1]

Re: "%u201CThe idea that somehow eating organic foods is going to make you healthier, I think is just wishful thinking,%u201D says Mark Kantor, a professor of nutrition at the University of Maryland."

It is shocking that such a myopic and poor scientist, is a professor at a U.S. University.

Evidence is mounting that the problems associated with antibiotics and hormones alone, found in factory farmed meat and dairy products, pose some significant health risks.

Either this "scientist" is being paid by big Corporate farming interests for his misinformed opinion, or his degree came from a box of Cracker Jacks.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Are Organic Foods Really Any Safer?"

For those who are interested in the threat which the genetically modified products of greedy corporations like Monsanto and ADM pose to our food supply, please check out the site of a traditional Canadian farmer, named Percy Schmeiser, and find out how Monsanto has damaged his crops and livelihood:

www.percyschmeiser.com

We must help our farmers to protect themselves against malignant corporations like ADM and Monsanto. Our lives may well depend on it.