What is the difference between organic, conventional and GMO's?
- Jodi Trierweiler
- Mar 23, 2015
- 6 min read
Food today is not what it was in grandma's generation. In grandma's generation, they didn't have to worry about where their seeds came from, who grew their food or what their cow's were being injected with. They just ate the food that they more than likely either grew themselves or bought from the farmer, butcher or dairy up the road because the issues we have today didn't exsist back then. Come to think of it, this is probably why my grandmother looks at me like I'm crazy when I bring my own food with me on a visit to her house and I start going on and on about genetically modified foods and organic produce. Who know's, maybe I am crazy or maybe I'm just way too observant and involved. They say ignorance is bliss, right?
I would like to think that I have always been pretty informed about our food, since I have worked in the food industry since I was 17 years old, but sad enough to say, I didn't really start to understand it until about three years ago when I started working at my local food co-op. Now, three years later I have done a complete overhaul on my life and am always trying to help educate others in areas related to their health and ultimately their food. However, if you are new to this world of healthy living, understanding the differences between food that is genetically modified, grown organically or grown conventionally can be confusing. So, let's simplify it a little.
When many of you go to the grocery store and pick up that apple or head of lettuce from the bin, you are buying a conventionally grown piece of produce, unless it is marked as organic or otherwise. What this means is that the farmer planted a seed (it may have been a genetically modified seed or it may not, we don't know for sure) in a feild that has lots of chemicals in it's soil. As that crop grows, it is normally sprayed with pesticides and herbacides as a means to protect that crop from insects and other natural enviromental factors that may interfer with crop production. It is then harvested, when ready, cleaned and sent to your local grocery. What you are left with is a piece of produce that may or may not be from a genetically modified seed, covered in pestacides and is overall less nutrient dense than it's organically grown counterpart. Oh, and pesticides/herbacides are not something you can just wash off either, it is in the soil that your produce grew in, it is in that apple or in that lettuce.
In terms of conventional meat or dairy, it is, in my opinion even worse than the conventional produce. Usually when people are referring to factory farmed meat or dairy, it is the same thing as conventional meat or dairy. In a nutshell, you are taking a whole bunch of animals, cramming them together in confined spaces that eventually become pretty disgusting (I mean if you cram 200 chickens in a room together, where do you think all their waste goes?), injecting them with hormones to increase growth, feeding them feed that comes from genetically modified, conventionally grown feed and then pumping them full of antibiotics because their bodies aren't designed to handle the amount of hormones they are given or made to be crammed together in filthy spaces. Eventually after they live a pretty terrible life, they are slaughtered, shipped off to your local grocery, where you buy it and serve it up for dinner. Yumm-O!
So, I may be a little bias because I eat a mostly vegetarian diet. I experiment time to time with being vegan but since I don't do wheat and I limit my soy consumption, I always find my way back to eggs and dairy. However, whatever your views are on meat and whatever you choose to do is totally fine by me! Keep in mind though, that by eating factory farmed meat and dairy you are really taking in a lot of bad stuff. Whatever that animal ate or had injected inside of them, is what you are putting inside of you. The same goes for conventional produce. Whatever that produce had in it, is what you are putting inside of you. Just some food for thought.
Now, that I have totally bummed and/or grossed you out, lets talk about the alternative and that is organic! When you see a food item, produce or otherwise that is labeled with the USDA Organic Seal or Certified Organic Seal, what that means is that product contains at least 95% or more organic material and that it has no synthetic additives (like pesticides, synthic fertilizers or dyes) and that it is not genetically modified. A lot of people are unaware of this, but it is true that if a product has the USDA Organic or Certified Organic seal that it is also NON GMO. So, when your organic farmer grows food, he is using a seed that is in no way genetically modified, he plants it in clean soil (this means soil that is natural and has nothing synthetic in it) and uses natural methods to protect it froms insects and other pests. When it gets harvested and sent to the grocery store, you are left with a natural piece of produce, the way you find it in nature.
Now when it comes to organic meat and dairy, it starts to get a little trickier. I think when a lot of people hear the word organic meat or organic dairy, the either confuse it or lump it together with free range and it is important to know that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Organic meat and dairy, means that those animals were not fed feed from genetically modified seeds and they were not injected with growth hormones or antibiotics. They were basically left to grow, develop and eat like normal cows, chickens and pigs. However, many organically raised animals are still crammed in cages or pens and left to live a pretty miserable life. Just because an animal is organically raised, does not mean that it is free range. In all honesty, the term "Free Range" sounds a lot better than it actually is. Free Range just means that they are not as resrticed as regular animals and that they get some movement or possibly some outdoor time. Unfortunately, if you are expecting to get chickens that are running around outside or eat cows that roam the plains freely, your best bet is probably a small local farm because typically that is not the case.
Okay, so we have covered conventional and organic but I save the worst for last (and don't worry, were almost done here), genetically modified organisms or more commonly known as GMO's are seeds that have been altered in a way that does not naturally occur in nature. Typically it is a seed that is spliced with genes from various bacteria, viruses and other agents to make them more resilient against pests, fungus, drought, too much rain, etc. It works similar to how vaccines work in people. You inject small amounts of the flu vaccine into a person to build up their immunity against the flu. Well, by injecting these seeds with certain bacteria, viruses and chemicals, you are making it more risilient against those various problems. A big thing that a lot of farmers are trying to keep their crops resilient against is pesticides. They want to be able to spray pesticides on their crops in order to kill the bugs but don't want the plant to die, so they splice the chemicals from that pesticide into the crop and voila, you have a GMO crop that reisists pesticides. The problem here is that for one thing, I am a big believer in that we are supposed to consume things that naturally occur in nature. As people, for thousands of years, we ate food the way it naturally occure in nature. We didn't eat chemicals, viruses and hormones, so why is it now supposedly acceptable to consume food that is not natural? Secondly, once you eat these GMO crops, you are eating whatever that seed was spliced with! If that seed was spliced with E.Coli (which does happen, by the way), than that is what you are eating! Now, you have to ak yourself, "If I wouldn't choose to knowingly eat food contaminated with viruses or bacteria, than why is it acceptable for my food to be sold to me with those ingredients hidden in them?" Until GMO labeling becomes mandetory, will really will never know what is in what.
Regardless of how you feel about any of these topics mentioned above, I always think it's a good thing to be informed and educate yourself. I mean, we need food to survive, so I think it would be nice to know, where it comes from and wether or not it's killing us or helping us live. If you are trying to live a healthier life and are looking for a place to start, I really think that educating yourself about GMOs and Organic food is a good place to start. I mean, whats the point of eating healthy if your health food is covered in poison?