Craig, Jordan

BRIEFING

Organic Food; who are they really good for?
Is there really difference? Let the consumer decide
Should I Eat That? Project, HTHI Fall 2013

What is organic and free range meat?
Free range and organic meat are often spoken of as the
better counterpart to its generic brother. But how are they
different? The USDA defines free range meat as meat which is
allowed outside. The problem is that farmers are excused from
allowing their meat to free
range if theres an
environmental risk, or a risk to
the crops. So farmers will use this
excuse to keep their animals
penned indoors while still
meeting the free range label.
Organic meat is meat which
forgoes the use of chemical
products like pesticides or some
preservatives. These chemicals
range anywhere from antibiotics
to the kind of feed the animals can
have. This also includes most
growth hormones, to which
farmers instead stick to selective
breeding to create the kind of
animals they want.
Is it good for our bodies?

This question has been debated by scientists and nutritionists all
over the world. The American College of Physicians reference
studies that conclude that it has no
effect whatsoever. Other than a
negligible rise in phosphorous they
say that it has no real change in the
health or development of people. On
the other hand the organization,
Organic center, proposes that organic
food are nutritionally superior in
nearly all cases. A problem many
people come across is that organic
food is in no way always healthy, no
matter what side you think is right.
Organic food can still be fried and
caked in sugar or grease, which
poses major health risks like heart
disease and stomach cancer. Just
because it has the organic label
doesnt mean that it is instantly
amazing, which makes it fairly similar to using the diet label on
soda, which lulls people into a false sense of health. On the other
hand, many pesticides and chemicals can be bad for humans. Some
are still far too new to be definitively proven safe, the verdict is
still up in the air.




How expensive is it?

The organic food industry alone made twenty eight
billion dollars in one year. There are somewhere around 3.1
million acres of farmland exclusive to growing organic products.
Organic Coffee alone made 281 million dollars in 2013. Grass fed,
organic beef averages around 5 dollars a pound as opposed to
normal steak which is 3 per pound. The total cost for organic is
naturally more expensive because
the cows have to live longer and the
feed is more expensive without the
pesticides to keep it fresh.
Is it humane?
One of the largest arguments for free
range and organic meat is that its
better for the animals. It makes the
life and general experience of the
animals better before they are
slaughtered. This isnt always true.
Regular slaughterhouses and farms
maim the animals, and they often
keep thousands in tiny buildings,
shoulder to shoulder with sickness everywhere. They will castrate
the cows without any pain reduction, they cut the beaks off of
chickens, they put rings through pigs snouts to keep them from
rooting into the ground causing them severe pain. The only real
difference with organic meat is the lack of chemical manipulation
to increase weight and growth. Many large organic farms will
instead breed the animals to have an
EXTREMLY low metabolism. This causes
them to gain so much weight that they cant
walk. Though they have access outdoors
(through a small hole in a shed) they cant
even walk without incredible pain to reach
it. In addition, many farmers with free
range meat have loopholes to get around
it. If the animals pose any risk to the
environment or the surrounding crops,
they can be kept inside. Thus farmers use
this to simply slap a free range label on
the product they sell. Though they may not
have cages, they are still packed together
to the point of not being able to move. They
still are covered in urine and feces,
wallowing in filth and death. A large
detriment to using organics is that they
cant use antibiotics on the animals. The
animals become riddled with sickness, all the constant unbroken
contact with others, the tight quarters, and the conditions do not
help. The animals suffer and go through much pain, possibly even
more than if they were non organic, as they have to live for a much
longer time before they are large enough to actually eat. This
extended time in these conditions is not an environment that is
conducive to what the consumer believes is organic.
SWAP allows factory farmers to cut
pigs testicles from their scrotums, use
the equivalent of a hole punch to
mutilate their ears, and chop off their
tails, all without any painkillers. SWAP
also allows factory farmers to cram
mother pigs into filthy crates so small
that they cant even turn around, to
dose the animals with so many drugs
that many become crippled, and to kill
sick pigs using blunt trauma (i.e.,
cracking their heads against the
concrete floor), gunshot, and
electrocution.

Craig, Jordan
BRIEFING

Organic Food; who are they really good for?
Is there really difference? Let the consumer decide
Should I Eat That? Project, HTHI Fall 2013





Works Cited:
NTPAR