Eating orgainic makes your foot look big.

I wrote this response to a friend who sent me these two articles:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/126254.html

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/126276.html

Yea isn’t that crazy, organic doesn’t really mean anything. I think it is hilarious. You should check out the USDA Organic procedure for certifying cosmetics. What the hell does it mean to have organic lotion? That probably realistically means it has less preservatives, but frankly I’d rather rub antibacterial on my canvas than mold. If I were to open a company right now I’d name it Lincoln’s Organic Hodgepodge’n Sorts. We’d put organic in the name of the company so people would think we were healthy, and then we’d sell corn byproducts like all the other non-organic companies. Of course we can’t even do that anymore, what with corn prices being more artificially inflated than Berry Bonds’ biceps. Carbon foot print aside, I would say that organic food does tend to taste better. I think organics have done well lately because the organic farmers have found their market niche in people who are desperate to buy good quality and good taste rather than long shelf-life and seedlessness. Organic food and good quality food don’t necessarily have to be the same thing. I think they were lumped together because food supplier—in the time leading up to the boom in organic foods—made efficiency more important than quality. Organic food is the market response to a demand for quality food. Some people would say that it has more to do with ethics, and that organic food is better for the environment. I think—and you showed me in the articles you sent me—this is not true. But people believe that it is, and organic food wears the label to ride their revenue home. It’s like that whole Obama “Change” (populism) movement. I like to think about what the world would be like if organic food ended up actually tasting like butt compared to genetically modified snacks. I bet in that world, organic food would be just as popular as cheese whiz and Lunchables are now. For those not hip to food fashion, cheese whiz and lunchables are “out.”

I like that people use carbon foot print to measure environmental impact of supposable environmental behavior. It shows an example of real cost/benefit analysis. I know carbon footprint it is not the perfect measure of being-good-to-the-planet, but it does shed light on the possibility of corrective behavior and future industry standards that could combine other impacting chemicals like NO2's, SO2's, and Mercuries.