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Over the last few years,
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organic food has spread like wildfire.
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Despite higher prices,
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buying organic is turning from an alternative
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into a moral and social responsibility.
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Organic food is supposedly healthier
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more natural and more ethical.
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But what do we even mean when we say organic?
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There's no global consensus,
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so different regions have different definitions and rules.
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In general,
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organic food is farmed without GMO seeds,
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synthetic fertilizers,
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or synthetic pesticides.
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Instead,
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organic farmers use more traditional ways of producing food,
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like crop rotation,
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and use organic fertilizers
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such as compost or manure.
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While the motivation to buy organic food is clearly noble,
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is it actually effective
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or just another costly trend we can skip
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without feeling guilty?
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[Music]
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Is organic food healthier?
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One idea associated with organic crops
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is that their natural cultivation
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is supposed to make them more nutritious and healthier.
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Indeed,
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several studies found that organic foods contain more antioxidants.
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Plants produce them as a sort of homemade pesticide.
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Organic plants seem to have to work a little harder,
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while regular plants have plenty of help from humans.
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Antioxidants are believed to have some health benefits,
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although scientists are still on the fence about them in general.
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We have no idea if and how exactly they help us,
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or how much produce you'd have to eat to absorb a certain amount.
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What about organic being more nutritious?
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Well, the evidence is mixed.
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Some studies found
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that organic food can have slightly higher concentrations of vitamin C,
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and omega-3 fatty acids,
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while others did not find significant differences.
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Overall, the mixed evidence
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suggests that there are only small differences in nutritional value.
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So, from the science available so far,
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it doesn't look like organic food has significant health benefits.
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What we do know,
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is that eating fruit and veggies in general is good for you,
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and most of us don't do that enough.
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Eating veggies is more important for your health
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than how they were produced.
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Is organic food more natural?
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People don't only buy organic to get extra vitamins,
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but to avoid something toxic;
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artificial pesticides and fertilizers.
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And indeed several studies show
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that there actually is less pesticide residue on organic produce.
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But here's where things get complicated.
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Less pesticide does not mean none at all.
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While pesticides are supposed to be a last resort in organic farming,
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they're not forbidden.
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Most organic pesticides are natural toxins,
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like vegetable oils,
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hot ash soap,
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sulfur or copper sulfates.
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But there are synthetic substances as well.
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What's the difference between organic and regular pesticides?
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Not a lot actually.
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Organic pesticides
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are not necessarily safer than conventional ones.
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Toxic is toxic.
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No matter if the substance is manufactured,
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or derived from nature.
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In fact,
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in the case of copper sulfate,
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often used on organic apples,
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the organic pesticide of choice
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is actually more harmful to humans.
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The toxicity of any substance
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depends on its concentration
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and your exposure to it --
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not if it's natural or not.
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There are a few recent studies
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about how our current level of pesticide exposure
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affects our long-term health.
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The 2018 study from France
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associated never eating organic food
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with a higher risk of certain cancers.
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The study was criticized a lot though.
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The participants reported their dietary habits themselves,
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while no actual tests of pesticide levels in their bodies were done.
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Complicating things even more,
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a Danish study from 2018
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found that the danger from pesticides for an adult
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was similar to drinking a glass of wine every three months.
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The pesticides on your vegetables
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are nothing to lose sleep over.
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Despite this,
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we should continue to demand strict standards for our food.
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All pesticides are regulated and tested very strictly
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in the EU and the US.
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Every year,
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thousands of food samples are screened for pesticides.
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The majority of samples have no residues
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or just a fraction of the tolerance level.
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Right now,
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contamination from bacteria and fungi
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is much more dangerous.
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And, on this front,
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the risk is the same --
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be it organic or regular food.
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Is organic food better for the environment?
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In 2017, a meta-analysis
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looked at organic farming in detail
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and analyzed organic and regular foods
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from over 700 production sources,
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and their impact on categories like greenhouse gas emissions,
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energy consumption,
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and land needs.
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The result?
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No production method is clearly better for the environment.
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Organic systems use less energy than conventional ones,
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but have similar greenhouse gas emissions.
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Organic farms use less pesticide,
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but need much more land to produce the same amount of crop.
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These mixed results were also confirmed
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by a report from the Swedish food agency.
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Organic and regular were equal in most regards.
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The biggest difference was land use.
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And here conventional farming clearly won,
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and ecotoxicity
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where organic farming has a clear advantage.
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So, according to these results,
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conventional farming
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actually has a little bit less impact on the environment
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compared to organic.
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The bottom line is
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organic food isn't superior to regular produce
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as far as we know.
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But, organic agriculture also has an impact at a broader level.
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Demand is rising constantly,
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and the struggle to supply the market
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can lead to production methods that are less sustainable in other ways.
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Spain, for example,
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grows tons of regular and organic vegetables
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destined for export
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in vast greenhouse areas which use a lot of energy.
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And have other environmental impacts,
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such as significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions.
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And, because growing demand can't be covered by domestic production,
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the global trade and organic foods is also increasing.
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As supply chains get more and more complex,
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to make all kinds of foods available in organic quality,
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ensuring organic quality standards
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and regulations gets ever more difficult.
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This has led to incidences of fraud
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where conventional food was labeled and sold
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as expensive organic produce.
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But, organic versus conventional food
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isn't even an objective discussion.
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Organic is not simply a production method.
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For many, it's an ideology.
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Buying organic feels right.
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People want to do the correct thing for the health of their children,
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and the well-being of the planet.
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But, our instinct to think of organic as good,
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and conventional as bad,
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can get in the way of making the most reasonable decision.
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The solution could be to stop seeing organic
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and conventional farming as irreconcilable.
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They both have pros and cons,
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and the best way to produce healthy food efficiently
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would be a combination of their best features.
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And,
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as for your personal shopping,
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what food you should buy
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depends on what you expect from it.
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If you simply want to eat healthily,
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you should buy more fruit and vegies of any kind,
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not necessarily organic.
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If your concern is for the environment,
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then simply buying organic won't solve this problem for you.
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The easiest option,
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is to buy local food that's in season.
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Basically,
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seasonal is the true organic.
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To sum up,
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an organic label is a manufacturing notice,
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not a security certificate
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or a silver bullet for your diet.
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What you eat
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is much more important than how its produced.
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