So you think you're saving the world: A take on organic consumerism

by Liz Ready

We all have that one friend. You know what I’m talking about. They’re the person who only buys their groceries at a certain grocery store and refuses to eat anything that wasn’t produced “correctly.” They are extremely aware, almost to a fault, of the impacts their consumption choices have on the world. 

And here’s the thing - We love that friend. We admire their fierce dedication to the things they’re passionate about and often cheer them on because, let’s be real, that kind of will power takes the time and effort we can’t personally seem to muster. But in a not-so-distant past, our “one friend” probably wouldn’t have been able to persist such habits.

In our ever globalizing world, never before have We The People had so much choice or purchasing power. It wasn’t until 1980 that our beloved super grocer Whole Foods was founded. Our parents, God bless them, didn’t have access to online grocery delivery services to save them from a headache-inducing trip to the store with a screaming toddler until 2013. These times are a changin’, and with more choice comes more opportunity to use our first-world right to buy whatever we want why ever we please.  

Being able to choose what we do and don’t consume is not always a good thing, even when we think we’re doing what’s best for our health or what’s right for the environment. Our society is incredibly privileged in that respect and those privileges, the choices we get to make, impact our world directly.

As a consumer, you should probably know that one in nine people on this earth¹ goes hungry, and that includes the one in six Americans who face hunger on a daily basis.² Even more alarming is that by 2050 our world will need to find a way to feed 9.7 billion people. There are certain popularized consumption choices that make hunger insecurity issues all the more difficult to solve. Choosing to only buy and consume organic products is one of them.

The economic theory of supply and demand tells us that when we want organic food, farmers are more likely to produce such products. However, organic food does not yield as well as conventionally grown food and ends up being less sustainable than society recognizes. Forbes contributor Steven Savage reported, “To have raised all U.S. crops as organic in 2014 would have required farming of one hundred nine million more acres of land. That is an area equivalent to all the parkland and wildland areas in the lower 48 states or 1.8 times as much as all the urban land in the nation.”³ If everyone chose to eat organic, we would ruin our environment by using an unnecessary amount of land and natural resources. We would also go hungry because there wouldn’t be enough land to feed everyone.

If you or your friend choose to eat organic because it’s healthier for you, think again. In 2012, The New York Times reported that Stanford University scientists found “fruits and vegetables labeled organic were, on average, no more nutritious than their conventional counterparts, which tend to be far less expensive. Nor were they any less likely to be contaminated by dangerous bacteria like E. coli.”⁴ And if you’re worried about the pesticides used on conventionally grown crops, the same rule applies - it’s safe to eat thanks to our government’s strict USDA and EPA regulations. (Click the link to read more about pesticide regulations in a separate blog post I wrote.) 

Our first-world, privileged consumer choice to only eat organic has serious ethical implications we can no longer ignore. It’s time for us, the consumer, to get a grip at the grocery store. If growing organic food uses more land, more resources and isn’t any healthier than conventionally grown crops, why do we allow ourselves to believe the opposite? The next time you have a choice to purchase organic food, let proven data be the decision maker, not societal norms.

Sources: 

¹ World Hunger Stastics (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2018, from http://www.foodaidfoundation.org/word-hunger-stastics.html

² 11 Facts About Hunger in the US. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2018, from https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-hunger-us

³ Savage, S. (2015, October 09). The Lower Productivity Of Organic Farming: A New Analysis And Its Big Implications. Retrieved October 29, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensavage/2015/10/09/the-organic-farming-yield-gap/#5db3d76b5e0e

⁴ Chang, K. (2012, September 03). Study Questions Advantages of Organic Meat and Produce. Retrieved October 29, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/science/earth/study-questions-advantages-of-organic-meat-and-produce.html?_r=1