Food: A Very Short Introduction by John Krebs

Author:John Krebs [Krebs, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780199661084
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2013-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

Organic food and genetically modified food

Consumer surveys show that the main reason people buy organic food is because they believe it to be safer or more nutritious. If there were a difference in safety, this would present a problem for food retailers, because it would mean that 97 per cent of the food they sell, which is conventionally produced, is in some way ‘less safe’ than the 3 per cent that is organic.

The organic movement has its origins in the writings of a late 19th-century Austrian anthroposophist (student of the non-material, spiritual world that is not accessible to science) called Rudolf Steiner. During the first half of the 20th century Steiner’s ideas were modified and incorporated into the foundations of the contemporary organic farming movement, especially by Lady Eve Balfour and Sir Albert Howard in the UK and J. I. Rodale, who coined the word ‘organic’, in the USA. The essence of their philosophy is that food grown in a more ‘natural’ way, with manure and crop rotation instead of chemical fertilizers, and with natural pesticides rather than artificial chemicals, is both more wholesome and more sustainable. Different organic certification bodies have different criteria for organic farmers, but on the whole they all permit fewer pesticides, drugs for preventing animal diseases, and synthetic fertilizers, than are used in conventional modern agriculture. In this regard, organic farming has more affinity to 19th-century farming or to subsistence farming in poor countries, than to late 20th- or 21st-century farming in the developed world.

Organic food production uses fewer pesticides but is not pesticide free: the approved list for the Soil Association, the UK’s largest trade and accreditation body for organic food, includes substances such as copper sulphate, rotenone, and sulphur because they are regarded as natural. Does the use of fewer pesticides and other synthetic chemicals in food production and manufacture make organic food safer?

We have already seen that natural toxins are not necessarily any safer than artificial or synthetic chemicals, and that the toxicity of most substances depends on the dose. The synthetic drugs administered to farm animals to reduce their burden of disease may help to reduce the prevalence of pathogens that could be a danger to human consumers. This could in part explain why a Danish study found that organic chickens were three times more likely to contain Campylobacter than were conventionally reared chickens. However, other studies in America have found no differences in the frequency of finding Salmonella or Campylobacter in chicken in the shops.

Conventionally produced crops, fruit, and vegetables are often treated, pre or post harvest, with pesticides to prevent fungal growth, while their organic equivalents are not. In theory, this could mean that organic foods are more dangerous because fungi often produce harmful toxins, such as afflotoxin in peanuts and ergot in wheat, which used to kill many thousands of people in the Middle Ages in Europe. In short, there are possible reasons for worrying about the safety of organic, as well as conventionally produced food. However, the

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