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Organic Food Radio Script

Megan Galvin

AGSD 3307

Curry

28 October 2015
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Organic Food

Since about 2350 B.C. during the caveman era, we as humans have learned a great deal about

how to protect crops and keep our animals healthy.

If I told you that you could overcome illness by changing what you eat, would you?

Good morning and thank you for joining us for the Argyle FFAs Agriculture Advocacy team. I

am _[Megan]__ and here with me today are _[Hope]_, and _[Larry]_. The current trend in

todays grocery stores is the popularity of organic food. Today we will discuss the marketing of

organic products and conventional products.

I am excited to discuss this topic, Megan! This is Hope here, Argyle FFAs vice president. A lot

of people believe that organic products are nutritionally better than non-organic products.

However, some recent studies have shown that not to be 100% true. The nutritional differences

between the two products are pretty minute. What are your thoughts, Larry?

Howdy yall! I am on the same page as you, Hope. The public will generally purchase their food

products based on how they look. Conventional farming will give you the products that you are

used to seeing in the store. Conventional products are more consistent and are usually bigger.

They look like the perfect produce.

But hey, wait a second, as that may be true that the produce from Conventional farming is more

consistent in size that does not mean anything when talking about nutrition.

Thats right Megan! A study was done at Newcastle University and the results yielded that

organic produce had up to 40% higher levels of nutrients. Another study showed that organic

berries contained 58% more antioxidants and 52% higher levels of vitamin C (Leifert).
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These studies show that there are a few differences. The biggest difference between the two types

of farming is not so much nutrition as it is the actual growing method.

What are the differences in the growing methods? Megan, do you know?

Of course Larry! When talking about organic farming we need to discuss what exactly makes

organic farming organic.

Organic farming is clean farming. It is a form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as

crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control. So what is the environmental

footprint of organic vs. conventional farming you ask?

Oh! I know this one, there is a difference in the environmental footprint between organic and

conventional farming. With a rise in population and currently over 309 million mouths to feed in

America organic farming cannot keep up with demand. Organic farms are roughly 25% less

productive than conventional farms (Ponisio). We can get twice as much food out of one acre of

land than does an organic farmer. However, we must use pesticides to keep up with demand.

I believe that pesticides are the problem. That is the big difference between organic and

conventional farming. Organic farms use mostly manure, peat, saltpeter, and compost as their

fertilizers. Organic farms also can use 195 registered bio pesticides which are materials

developed from animals and plants (Ponisio). They rely a lot on the quality of the soil in which

the plants are grown in. They can use crop rotation to help use and replenish the nutrients in the

soil. This will help the plants prosper in a natural way.

So what youre saying, is that if you buy organic produce then you do not have to worry about

pesticides? Hope just said that organic farmers can use bio pesticides. Are they harmful to people

if consumed?

Well Megan, the FDA says levels of pesticide residues in the U.S. food supply are well below

established safety standards. Therefore it is just fine for the public to continue to consume

conventional produce as we always have. Organic farming may use less toxic materials in their

growing process; however, less toxic does not mean nontoxic.

You are correct _[Larry]_. Less toxic does not mean nontoxic but the less you put into your body

the better off you are. There is an agreement across the board that bio pesticides are not as

dangerous as commercial pesticides. Therefore, organic fertilizers are less of a problem. As noted

before they consist of natural materials like manure, seaweed, and compost.

Croplands currently occupy 40% of Earths land surface so running out of crop foods is not a

problem just yet(Permanentcropland). But the pesticides on fruit and vegetables do cause

people concern. With proper care of your produce you can take care of the problem yourself.

Make sure you wash or peel your fruit and vegetables to make sure you are not consuming

pesticides. Is there certain produce that can be more contaminated by pesticides than others?

Yes _[Hope]_ some produce is more contaminated by pesticides than others. Apples, celery,

berries, peaches, grapes, bell peppers, potatoes and lettuce are more commonly contaminated

produce.

However, onions, corn, pineapple, avocado, peas, cantaloupe, cabbage, watermelon, grapefruit,

and mushrooms are less likely to be contaminated by pesticides.

Oh, ok. So there are certain products we will want to purchase as organic and certain products we

want to purchase as conventional. If there is not a high level of pesticides then we should just

purchase the conventional product and save the extra money. Currently only about 3% of the

American food market is organic food (Jagiello). Why is that when over 27% of the American

population is considered obese? Only about 14% of us consume the recommended servings of

fruit and vegetables a day (Jagiello). Im sure the price drives peoples decisions too.

Its no secret that the price of organic food is much higher than the price of conventional

products. That is merely because the fertilizers cost more for organic farming and it takes twice

as long to produce the product. Organic fruit and vegetables can cost up to 13 16 cents more

than conventional produce. With all the budget shortfalls in society today people cannot afford to

spend the extra money to buy organic.

It is true that organic produce does cost more than conventional produce, but what is the cost of

safety? Organic products cost more because it can take up to four tons of manure per acre to

produce food crops. A bag of synthetic fertilizer is much cheaper but the side effects are much

greater. Ultimately it is up to the consumer to answer the question of is it worth the extra

pennies to feed my family less toxic products?

Well ladies, we have addressed produce, the U.S. produces 80 billion pounds of meat per year. 35

billion of that is chicken (TheUnitedStatesMeatIndustryataGlance). We have talked about

organic produce. What about organic meat? Is it along the same lines of price and time?

Grass fed cattle meat contains higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids. As said earlier, omega-3 fatty

acids are very beneficial because it is believed to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

However, when a cow is placed in feedlot setting the omega-3s drop tremendously (Larsen).
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It is true that grass fed cattle has higher levels of omega-3s but it is unclear how much higher.

There has not been a study to show what the ratio is between omega-3s and omega-6s in grass

fed or feed lot cattle (Larsen).

Are you aware that there was a half a billions eggs recalled due to salmonella. Chickens that are

raised in free-range conditions are less likely to spread salmonella. However, when you raise

them in cages where they are close together the bacteria can spread rampaged.

Well Hope, the poultry and egg industries stress the importance of thoroughly washing and

cooking your poultry and eggs to help prevent salmonella. It doesnt matter if your meat is

organic or not, you are still at risk of salmonella if the products are not properly cared for. As

with produce, if we were to have only organic or free-range animals then we would not have

enough meat products to feed our population.

So to recap on this, the animals could potentially be healthier but there is not enough information

to lean either way. And, with the amount of extra time and space needed to produce organic meat

the price is higher as with produce.

Currently only about 3% of the cattle that are raised in the US are raised organically. On top of

that only about .02% of hogs and 1.5% of poultry are raised organically (Jagiello).This is mainly

due to lack of space as well as cost like _Megan_ said.

A leaner alternative would be fish. They too are high in omega-3s but are lower in calories as

well.

Well, thats all the time we have for today. You now have the most information necessary to

understand the organic market. Thank you _[Hope]_ and __[Larry]__ for joining me today to
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discuss the difference between organic and conventional products. Please join us again next

month for another Agriscience report. I am _Megan__ with the Argyle FFA chapter, signing off!
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References

Jagiello, A. (n.d.). Market Analysis. Retrieved October 27, 2015.

Larsen, H. (n.d.). Omega 3 Oils: The Essential Nutrients. Retrieved October 27, 2015,

from http://www.mercola.com/beef/omega3_oil.htm

Leifert, C. (2015, October 8). Newcastle University - Organic vs non-organic food.

Retrieved October 27, 2015, from

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/news/2015/10/organicvsnon-organicfood/

Permanent cropland (% of land area). (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2015.

Ponisio, L., M'gonigle, L., Mace, K., Palomino, J., Valpine, P., & Kremen, C. (2014).

Diversification practices reduce organic to conventional yield gap. Proceedings of the

Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 20141396-20141396.

The United States Meat Industry at a Glance. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2015.