There has been some talk recently in a few different threads about organic vs. non-organic food and whether or not it’s just a marketing scam or if the chemicals used are actually bad for you.

Check out this website whatsonmyfood.org. It reviews most of the main whole foods (fruits, vegetables, meats, etc.) and houses real scientific data regarding what is found on these foods. This website compares these chemicals between conventional and organic versions.

These chemicals are broken down into categories of carcinogens, hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, developmental or reproductive toxins, and bee toxins. The prominence of the shading is indicative of the scientific support for or against the claim being made.

I suggest you find one (or all) of the food you eat regularly and do some research into the chemicals frequently found on that particular food. Here is a great website providing detailed information about specific chemicals found on food pesticideinfo.org.

I’m not going to tell you what to think but in my opinion this is scary stuff.

Information is power.

Thanks for the links, i'll check them out in a bit

Wild food really is something i wish i could get into at the moment. Sadly i don't have access to much if any of it in this area, and it won't be a while until i can move. I eat a lot of organic food nowadays. After eating so much fruit over the years things like conventionally grown bananas taste like crap in comparison

Almost everything I eat is organic..at least 90% of it. I know there is alot of people who dont think there is a difference but that is laughable really.

Anyone who spends any ammount of time switched over to a fully organic diet will quickly realize how much faster organic fruits will mold and ferment compared to conventional stuff..like it is sopposed to. I find it so odd when people try to inform me it is all some scam because the first thing I think is they have never actaully bought organic fruits and seen the difference themselves. I can buy organic strawberries and then conventional strawberries and the organic ones can mold in a day or 2 while conventional strawberries might still not be fermenting like 4 or 5 days later. Some might think thats an advantage but I mean, what kind of preservatives and pesticides are used to make strawberries like that?

I dont eat anything GMO..never ever.

Hybrids I avoid as much as I can when they are seedless..I dunno something about seedless sterile fruit bothers me..the whole purpose of a fruit is the seeds..if a fruit is not producing seeds than I can only imagine what else it is lacking..its hard thoug..I still have seedless bananas...we have to personally order cases of seeded watermelons here because even people who are into organic foods prefer sterile fruit.

Not true. The molding/fermentation you describe is due to poor nutrients in "organic" food. One problem with the "organic" labelling standards (at least in the US) is that they have no stipulations for nutrients in the soil - and loose restrictions for how long land has to be fallow of traditional-style chemicals, making it easy for massive agricultural companies to certify "USDA organic", while it's next to impossible for the small farmer to fund the certification process. Maybe it's different in Canada? But back to the point, if your fruits and vegetables are properly grown with nutrients, they won't mold quickly; they will keep their structure. It's simply the case that current industrial-style "organic" farming hasn't caught up with current industrial-style "non-organic" farming. A good "local" farmer who knows his/her soil and nutrients and cares for his/her fruits and vegetables will, of course, produce finer quality foods than either "organic" and "non-organic" industrial farms.

You can use a Brix refractometer to measure relative quality of produce, if you want to verify quality on your own (they go for around 50 USD).

Let’s look at peaches for example…

62 pesticide residues found by USDA pesticide data program
10 known or probable carcinogens
29 suspected hormone disruptors
12 neurotoxins
11 developmental or reproductive toxins and
25 environmental toxins

Now let’s look at “Iprodione”. This chemical is found in 30-31% of all conventionally grown peaches.

Iprodione – Averages 176.3mcg out of every 100grams for convention imported and has maximally been found to have 1200mcg per 100grams. It has never been found to be in organic domestic.

Effects –

1. The sex organs, pituitary, and adrenals of both sexes appear to be target organs for Iprodione.
2. hunched posture, pilo-erection, pale and/or cold extremities, an emaciated appearance, decreased body weight
3. Iprodione was a mild ocular irritant.
4. In females, decreased relative organ weights were observed in the uterus, ovary, adrenal, and pituitary.
5. Liver hypertrophy and the other male displayed a pale liver, in addition to anemia and hypertrophy of the prostate and testes.
6. There was an increase in the incidence of both unilateral and bilateral benign interstitial cell tumors in the testes of males
7.decreases were observed in the red blood cell parameters [hemoglobin, hematocrit, and red blood cells].
8. There was an increase in the incidence of liver tumors in both sexes

This information can be found by googling: Appendix I: Summary of Human Health Effects Data for Iprodione

This is just one chemical folks… There are 62 different chemicals on peaches. If one were to look up any of the other 61 other chemicals, similar information would emanate.

Toxins = Profit

A farmer who is spraying this stuff on his crops doesn't care about peoples' health when he just wants to support his family in a competitive market. Monoculture has failed both the land and the people. How long before people realize how wrong this is, I do not know.

anyone who eats meat should also seriously look into the presense of prions in factory farmed meat. You dont want to be heating prions.