In the supermarket, foods labeled with “Organic” generally cost a lot than conventional food. Recently, Marina Carbonaro [1]and his co-authors found that the concentration of polyphenoloxidase (PPO水果多酚, one kind of natural antioxidant) in organic fruit samples was comparable to that of the corresponding conventional ones. So, is it reasonable for organic food with such high prices? Jack Kluger also [2] mentioned that organic food not only cost too much but also uneasy to purchase in most markets. However, there still numerous people encourage us to consume organic food instead of conventional food. Why should consumers pay a price for organic food? The aim of this essay is to discuss about the health, environmental attitude and consuming values of organic food.
People always care about prices before they found out the risks that they had to face. We are all aware that organic means grown and processed without chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, toxic pesticides, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic manipulation. Although organic fruits and vegetables cost 13¢ to 36¢ per lb. more than ordinary produce [2], the health risks of non-organic products cost higher that we never expected.
One of the facts is that buyers can’t wash off the chemicals on those vegetables, fruits and grains which grocers and agribusiness giants label “conventional”. One of report [3] quoted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s study, “Despite giving produce a thorough washing, chemical residue from pesticides can remain on the surface of your food”. The study analyzed 96,000 tests for pesticides on ordinary produce. The evidence shows that all most 95 % positive test results for pesticides has been found on several conventional food, including peaches, celery and nectarines. [3] Farmers are the poorest groups because they must directly face their agricultural products during farming. In order to get high produce most of farmers use toxic pesticides which break human body’s normal hormones balance and even terribly cause cancers. Once one realizes how toxic “conventional” food is, it doesn’t look that cheap.
Besides the food safety dangers, here is another huge environmental issue that people should concern about it. Agriculture authorities around the world had paid close attentions to establish series of laws for protecting the environments in their countries and pushing the food supplier to reduce the damages from chemicals on their products over the last few years. One of the worst examples of chemical pollution can explain why everyone who lives on this earth should care about the environmental effect caused by those toxic pesticides. In 1984, a chemical plant which produced cotton pesticides in Bhopal India leaked a nerve gas. Around 28,000 people were killed; furthermore 250,000 publics blinded and seriously injured in that terrible accident. [4] There are lots of historical lessons like this which aroused some groups, including farmers, food suppliers and consumers, to practice permaculture. The word permaculture is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture as well as permanent culture. [5]
It is the most proud that some Taiwanese had started to support permaculture. Lee-Zen(里仁) is one of the famous organic food suppliers in Taiwan, they spent lots of time to educate consumers about the importance of environmental attitudes and connect a strong market niche to persuade farmers to practice permanent agriculture. Another successful example is Whole Foods Market, a famous and reputable U.S. natural and organic foods chain market with more than 300 stores in the world, committed to helping take care of the world around us and support of organic farming and sustainable agriculture. [6]These examples showed that not only organic food suppliers can earn more business reputation and money but also organic farmers can farm their land permanently. Of course, the customers like you and me who support permaculture can gain vital healthy from non-toxic food.
The current studies had proven that the consuming values of organic food had strongly depended on the consumers' perceive. M. R. Shaharudin provided in-depth survey and considered that only perceived value and health consciousness influenced the customer purchase intention. [7] The significance of this study results also means that you and me can both make our environment better and we have full rights to choose what our body really needed.
Although organic foods of all kinds currently represent only about 3% of the total American market, market, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but it's a sector we all should be supporting more.[2] People who support organic food directly reflected their positive environmental attitudes. They also realized that the current unnatural food have brought worse damages of our environment and caused invisible nonmarket costs and safety dangers behind the price tags of the conventional food. Consumption of the organic food affects both our visible health and potential environmental effect.
References
[1] M Carbonaro , M Mattera, S Nicoli, P bergamo, M Cappelloni,”Modulation of Antioxidant Compounds in Organic vs. Conventional Fruit”, J. Agric. Food Chem., 2002, 50(19), pp5458-5462
[2] J Kluger,” What's So Great About Organic Food?” Time, 2010, Aug 18
[3]Amy, “Produce may retain pesticides after washing”, WTOP, 2010, May 3
[4] “印度博帕爾毒氣洩漏事件始末” ,中國經營網 , 2010.06.08
[5] Permaculture, Wikipedia
[6] Whole Foods Market
[7] M.R. Shaharudin, J.J. Pani, S.W. Mansor, S.J. Elias,” Purchase Intention of Organic Food; Perceived Value Overview”, Canadian Social Science, 2010, 6(1), pp70-79
