Organic vs. Inorganic or (Some Things Just Cantaloupe.)

"Imma gon' destroy dis berry!"

(Image source:  http://www.turtleseatingthings.com/turtles-become-self-aware )

     The warm season is here.  It's time for fresh produce.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, green beans, and...and...adsf;dsajfds.  Sorry, I've just salivated on my keyboard.  One minute.
   The point is, there is nothing better than fresh produce.  It's easier to come by, it's cheaper, and it tastes better.  What's better on a nice summer day than a good old fashioned BLT (Bacon, lettuce, and tomato).
      Support your local farmers buy produce and anoth- (RING)  Ok, that's weird my phone is ringing inside of my blog.  I must resist the urge of an over used Inception joke. "Phone Ception!"  Damn it. (RING) Ok, one second.  I have to take this call.
     (45 minutes later)
Wow, time sure does fly in blog world.   I just got off of the phone with a concerned reader.  They explained to me that we should screw the local farmers and other companies and buy organic (Not their exact words). (RING)(RI---)  I'm sorry, let me turn this off.
     Harmful Pesticides and other Chemicals hurts us and the environment.  
       Let me start by saying "Yes, organic doesn't use harmful chemicals or pesticides compared to conventional farming.  What's wrong with that?  Let me tell you, the world is full of bugs, rabbits, and other things that just love to eat produce.  How are they keeping them away?  No, playing Justin Bieber CD's won't work (I apologize for the meme jokes today).  Keeping the crop from being eaten by critters is a great challenge.   The truth is, that about half of the crop is what they would consider good enough to sell.  Therefore to keep up with demand they need to plant twice as much in order to keep with the demand.  This of course requires twice as much land, twice as much water (Twice as many Bieber jokes).  This of course explains why organic is much more expensive.  They need to pay the water bills, the land, and the extra employees it takes to manage all of this.  That's the price one pays for pesticide free food.  With that said, the pesticides that are conventionally used to protect the produce are heavily regulated by the government.  Any pesticides are tested, retested, signed for, and then approved.  If these pesticides weren't safe we'd of  have a much smaller population today and I would be able to find a decent parking spot Wal-Mart.  I'm not saying you should drink pesticides (unless you're a member of the Taliban).  You should always wash your vegetables.
       "Ah Ha!!!"  A scream shouts from the distance.  "Organics don't use pesticides therefore you won't have to worry about washing your fruit and wasting all that water!!!"
     To which I reply.  "Shut up!  This is my blog!"  How much water does it take to wash a tomato anyway?  The point is, you should ALWAYS wash your fruits and vegetables organic or not.  Why?  Animal poop.  You heard me.   Stuff grows in the ground.  Animals poop on the ground (I once saw a goat use a toilette at a fair, but he still didn't wipe).  Water runoff travels through this and carries poop through these crops.  This poop carries E. Coli which is bad for your health despite sounding like the name of some pretentious author (Coming soon:  Love and War, and Fecal Liaisons.  By E. Coli)  So, wash your fruits and vegetables unless you want to be apart of the next viral video (2 Girls 1 (unwashed)Tomato).
       What's this about screwing local farmers?
Isn't organic farming done by the little guy?  Not unless you mean the CEO of one of these major corporations is short (I don't think he is.  He wears gold plated platform shoes)  The truth is a lot of these organic brands are owned by major companies.  Quick, think of something healthy and organic.  Back to Nature which has cookies, and chips, and other things made from organic things and maybe recycled newspaper (the box.)   Look at the Boca burger.  Yummy, all natural soy protien and vitamins.  Both Back to Nature and Boca Burger is owned by  Kraft.  Have you heard of Kraft?  That's because it's a major corporation.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing.  I'm just saying that it's not a reason to pay three dollars for a crappy tomato!
   Sorry.  Where was I?  Oh yeah.  So what do we have?  Organic food is more expensive to produce which is why it costs more.  If any local farmers are selling organic products they are still being overrun by the major companies. What else is there?
   Nutrition and Taste.

    The verdict is still out on this one.  There still hasn't been any conclusive evidence that proves the nutrition is any different between organic and regular vegetables.  As far as taste goes.  I suspect that has more to do with psychology than anything else.  Not just because the word "Organic" is in there.  But the price has something to do with it as well.  If something is more expensive you may expect it to be a bit better.  Even if it isn't.I think it's best summed up by an experiment.  Just look at this wine experiment.  When they were told they were drinking really expensive wine they believed it tasted better.  Even though all wine tastes pretty much the same unless it's loaded with enough sugar to make an Ant diabetic.  Here is another experiment done by Penn & Teller.  They cut a banana in half and told people that the first half was organic and the other half wasn't.  Guess which half tasted better?

     You guessed it.  The chocolate milkshake.  I mean the part they thought was organic.  There have been a few tests that show some organic food actually might taste a bit sweeter but it's up to the buyer to decide if it's worth the extra coin.  What do you think?  Do you eat organic food simply because you believe it's better for you?  Take a step back and look at those grapes.   Please leave your comments and thoughts below.

  P.S. Here is a recipe for a BLT:

Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon
• 2 leaves lettuce
• 2 slices tomato
• 2 slices bread, toasted
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise

Directions

1. Cook the bacon in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon slices on a paper towel-lined plate.
2. Arrange the cooked bacon, lettuce, and tomato slices on one slice of bread. Spread one side of remaining bread slice with the mayonnaise. Bring the two pieces together to make a sandwich.

  Recipe Source:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/blt/
References:

• http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/myths-organic-food
• http://www.americasfarmers.com/about/facts/did-you-know.aspx?gclid=CKCmgqSKiq8CFbEDQAodomUe-g