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[Opinion] Organic Farming - V.

V. Conclusion

  Through out human history, there were several big events that deeply affected our agriculture system, and every-time the change brought a huge improvement of our food production ability. Since 1960s, the Green Revolution, which introduced highly productive cultivars and wide application of synthetic chemicals, created significant growing amounts of food production. But after that, the growing public concern for personal health and global ethics made people worry about the potential side effects of overusing those chemicals. Thus, after 1990s, organic farming systems, as one of the alternative farming systems, has been introduced to the market, and soon became one of the most vigorously developing businesses. However, although most of green companies tend to convince their consumers that organic food is superior in every way, we, the consumers, still have the right to discover the truth by ourselves.
  Most of the advertisements for organic food mainly focus on the food security issue and other ethical topics, such as environmental problems. In food security issues, those green businesses tried to convince consumers that organic food is safer and more nutritious. But presently most of these clams are, in fact, are not confirmed by scientific researches. Most of them are still assumptions and hypotheses and studies have failed to demonstrate their accuracy. In other words, we might believe that organic food is superior to conventional food, but we still lack hard evidence.
  The other argument for organic food is the environmental topics. Most of us care about the environment, and we want to pass what we have now on to our offspring; thus, most consumers are willing to buy organic foods because they have been told they are environmentally friendlier products. It is true that producing organic food needs less energy, produces less greenhouse gases, and brings less negative effects to the biosphere. But it has conditions. The low yields in organic farming systems challenge the efficiency between the input energy and output production amounts. Moreover, the long-distance shipping also neutralizes the benefits of less energy consumption during growing periods. That is, only organic food is not the solution to our current environmental problems. To reach those ideas and goals about our environment, we still have to add another idea, such as “buying local”.
  On the other hand, organic food also seems to be the symbol of costly food choice. The high price is one of the main points why a lot of people say no to organic food even they want it. The green business claimed that the production cost of organic food is much higher than conventional food, although most of research showed that the total production cost of organic food is only slightly higher than conventional food, and with approximately double net profits. But most of consumers are willing to pay the extra money for organic food because, based on a social and psychological research, generally our societies believe that people purchasing organic products are more cooperative, altruistic, and ethical than other people who consume conventional products. This thinking might be part of factors that push people to consume organic food.
  In short, for a long time, consumers have believed in what those green companies told us. However, just like with any other kind of business, the consumers have a right to know and discover those truths behind those advertisements by themselves. And also, the scientists have the obligation to design research to explain what we have currently and what we can do in the future since they are seen as more knowledgeable and professional than average people. Only when the consumers are fully informed about all the information from both sides, can they have the ability to judge and to decide their purchasing actions.




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