“Roughly a third of the world's food shortages could be alleviated to a significant degree by improving local agricultural distribution networks and helping to better connect small farmers to markets.” ---Ban Ki Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
With so much debate about the, challenges of how the globe can feed its populous in coming years going on, Should the consumption of organic food be considered selfish? The main objective of this article is to help in the contribution, of a better understanding on organic farming. In order to acquire a worthy and liberal answer to the proposed question, at the very beginning of the following academic essay, concepts and raw facts need to be put forward. Based on Bongaarts and Bulatao’s research (2000) at the end of the year 1999, the world’s population had risen to 6 billion and was forecasted to reach the 9 billion mark by 2050. Also with the increase in the average life expectancy, the future is expected to have a sustainable population growth and population aging (Bongaarts and Bulatao, 2000). Ensuring a stable source of nutrition, to satisfy the ever growing population is to become a challenging task (Whitman.D, 2000).With the high probability of global income per capita increase by an estimate factor of more then three by 2050, and also the animal share of calories in a diet projected to increase from todays 15% to about a third in 2050, all of this will put a large strain on the availability of agricultural land (Brouwer, McCarl, 2006).
Before continuation of the following academic essay, establishment of a coherent definition, of organic food is necessary. As research for the essay is mostly with regards to the United Kingdom (UK), the author assumed that the best definition would be that form the, Food standards agency (FSA), this body at the time of the essay, defined organic food to, be a food production method which adopts a holistic approach, practicing good animal husbandry, controlling diseases and controlling pests, making use of crop rotation and environmental management (2011). The United States department of agriculture (USDA) defines organic food in a similar manner. With accordance to the soil associations web site (2011), organic food is better than conventional because it is free from “controversial additives” like tartrazine, MSG, aspartame, organic food is environmentally healthy as it releases less greenhouse gasses than non-organic farming, it looks out for the animals welfare and organic food is completely genetically modified free. The soil association’s reasons for the consumption of organic food, makes it sound almost unethical or selfish when any products other than organic are purchased.
According to key note’s forecasted market report, the growth pace for organic food will increase in the following years, with the sales in retail shops rising from 2.05 billion in 2010 to £2.6 billion in 2014 (2010). The need to ask the question arises, that is what drives consumers to choose organic food over conventionally farmed food. According to the research results done on British consumers by Makatouni, (2002), consumers come to believe that organic food is a means to achieving social and individual values, the most important of which is health factors either for themselves or their families, he also found in his research that the consumers choice is also centered around environmental and welfare of animals, although the consumers perception of health is a major influencer.
In Europe there are a total of 349 different types of pesticides present in sold food products (pesticide action network, 2008), and it was also found that one in twenty of these products contained pesticide levels above the legal limit, further research done found that, over 25% of all vegetables, fruits and cereals tested in the EU contained two or more, different pesticides, 5% of cereals, vegetables and fruits tested contained more than 5 pesticides and freaquently in sweet potatoes and grapes more the ten different types of pesticides are detected. In the European Union the some of the hazardous pesticides are among the most commonly used, examples being iprodione (carcinogen), deltamethrin (endocrine disruptor) captan (carcinogen), carbendazim (mutagen, reprotoxin) (pesticide action network, 2008).Exposure to pesticides may cause serious damage to the existing populous, it is estimated that around 20,000 accidental deaths a year occur worldwide, due to pesticide exposure, over the past 12 months, The united kingdom’s health and safety executive reported that a 5% of pesticide users were reported to have visited a doctor thought to due to the pesticide exposure and a further ten percent symptoms did not consult a doctor (soil association and sustain, 2001). Pesticides are linked to cancer, that is breast cancer, they are also linked to causing allergies as well is fertility problems for men, that is studies have found that, there is a reduced sperm concentration as well as abnormalities in the sperm cell, this has been linked to pesticides(cleeton, 2004). Organically farmed food contains much less residues of pesticides (Cleeton, 2004) as compared to its conventionally farmed counterparts.
However according to research done by Trewavas (1999) organic farming requires more labor and also suffers greater loss in its production due to insects and weeds, making it inefficient. On one of The Independent times (2007)news articles, the environmental secretary said that no conclusive evidence was amassed to prove that organic food is nutritionally superior, the government’s chief scientist contradicts the previous data entered (pesticides) and say that organic food was no safer than chemically treated food. Trewavas (1999) research to some extent backs up the UK government’s chief scientist statement by, stating that pesticide residues in organic food are not absent but are present in lower amounts. The risk of acquiring an organic product containing aflatoxin (most potent known carcinogen) is higher as compared to a conventially farmed product. Research conducted concluded that the presence mycotoxins has no practical solutions for elimination of them for a product completely, hence machining them unavoidable (Jouany, Yiannikouris and Bertin, 2007).
Another issue regarding organic food is according to The Independence (2007), organic food like tomatoes, milk and chicken require more resources to produce less, that is in the case of tomatoes, the energy required to grow organic tomatoes is 1.9 times that of conventional farming, a tonne of organically grown tomatoes require 122sq m of land, convenially grown tomatoes need 19sq m. production of organic milk requires 80% more land to generate a unit than conventional, generates near about 20% more carbon dioxide and also double the amount of by products, that may result in acidification of soil and water pollution. For chicken in the organic side they require 25% more energy to grow and rear, the carbon dioxide generation per bird is 6.7kg for organic, in conventional barn hens or battery its 4.6kg, water pollution caused due to eutrophication is more in the organic option.-(The Independent, 2007).
Dangerous bacteria, Ecoli 0157 can be present in the guts of cattle, farmers use cow and pig manure when it is available, this could result in death or leavingthe person with not functioning kidneys, cases of outbreak of Ecoli have occurred in the US and were traced to organic lettuce and strawberries Trewavas (1999).
In accordance to an article on the telegraph (2010), DEFRA (department for environment, food and rural affairs) said that with the swelling growth in global population, diminishing energy sources, depleted fish stocks and climate change, the population can no longer be complacent about its ability to feed itself, however according to the cabinet office (2008) the output of agriculture from the 1960’s has grown faster than the population, two billion people around the globe are overweight but around 850 million other people are undernourished. The decaying state of the global environment, fish stocks and soil have resulted in the end of cheap food and the beginning, of a new high food price and volatile era in the international market, the rising income will also result in an increase in the demand for meat, this demand will also affect the demand and price of grain, price spikes in the market may be caused by a variety of supply and demand factors, they include transport and energy costs which are higher.(cabinet office, 2008).
In conclusion with ever increasing population, and amount of land available remaining constant, also with depletion of fossil fuels, feeding the population becomes an even more challenging task. As established in the above data, organic food production require more resources, in terms of energy, land and water and in some cases may causes as much pollution or more than conventional farming, in terms of carbon dioxide emission. Also as mentioned there is no proof that the food is more nutritious, however the author research results make him conclude that, organic food is more environmental friendly in terms of soil preservation and healthier as, it should contain less pesticide residues with accordance, to the author above data but this does not mean that organic is safe. Organic farming appears to also practice good animal husbandry. So to answer the author’s question, yes consumption of organic food is selfish, as this food requires more resources to grow less. Also because demand for organic food, will result in conventional farms being replaced with organic farms, reducing supply and hence having an impact on price, and as established earlier organic food is already expensive to produce. So a consumer my ask themselves which one is more ethical good food that is a bit safer and practices better animal husbandry or less or no food at all, for low income families.
Bibliography
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Bongaarts. John, Bulatao.A.Rodolfo (2000). “beyond six billion:forecasting the worlds population”. National academy press:Washington D.C.
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