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General Science => General Science => Topic started by: alancalverd on 12/08/2015 19:43:45

Title: Is "organic" food safe to eat?
Post by: alancalverd on 12/08/2015 19:43:45

I've never eaten truly inorganic food (though NASA's freeze-dried astronaut ice cream comes pretty close), but supermarkets put a premium on stuff they call "organic". I understand that the vegetables so labelled, are grown in soil fertilised with animal (including human) faeces (the human stuff is marketed as "Thamesgro" and suchlike, by sewage companies) rather than clean Haber-Bosch fixed nitrogen.

Now I like to eat raw vegetables, particularly carrots and mushrooms. But I know that a lot of animal faeces contains human parasites and pathogens such as pork tapeworm, salmonella, toxocaria, and probably the viral or prion agent responsible for CJD. I'm fairly certain that most of these can be eradicated by prolonged boiling, but are "organic" vegetables really safe to eat raw or stir-fried?

Title: Re: Is "organic" food safe to eat?
Post by: PmbPhy on 15/08/2015 13:29:35

Quote from: alancalverd on 12/08/2015 19:43:45

I've never eaten truly inorganic food (though NASA's freeze-dried astronaut ice cream comes pretty close), but supermarkets put a premium on stuff they call "organic". I understand that the vegetables so labelled, are grown in soil fertilised with animal (including human) faeces (the human stuff is marketed as "Thamesgro" and suchlike, by sewage companies) rather than clean Haber-Bosch fixed nitrogen.

Now I like to eat raw vegetables, particularly carrots and mushrooms. But I know that a lot of animal faeces contains human parasites and pathogens such as pork tapeworm, salmonella, toxocaria, and probably the viral or prion agent responsible for CJD. I'm fairly certain that most of these can be eradicated by prolonged boiling, but are "organic" vegetables really safe to eat raw or stir-fried?

I hate to think about what I eat. It scares me. Lol!

When you wrote this I looked it up and found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parasites_of_humans  - Yikes!

I've always gotten a kick out of the term "organic food" because taken literally all food is organic because one of the definitions of the term "organic" is "carbon containing compounds", i.e.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/organic

Quote

b  (1) :  of, relating to, or containing carbon compounds  (2) :  relating to, being, or dealt with by a branch of chemistry concerned with the carbon compounds of living beings and most other carbon compounds

Title: Re: Is "organic" food safe to eat?
Post by: Maizie on 02/09/2015 18:33:24

I have always wondered why the term 'organic' as well. Thanks for the links...it always scares me too to think of what could be on/in our foot.

Title: Re: Is "organic" food safe to eat?
Post by: chiralSPO on 02/09/2015 18:53:42

As a chemist, I am offended by the colloquial (and now legal) "organic" terminology. It has nothing to do with organic vs inorganic chemistry, and everything to do with fad. It isn't even reflective of safety.

Quote from: alancalverd on 12/08/2015 19:43:45

Now I like to eat raw vegetables, particularly carrots and mushrooms. 

I cannot recommend eating raw mushrooms of any variety. Many do grow on/in faeces or other rotting biomatter, and could easily be contaminated by other less wholesome organisms. Many fungi are also very susceptible to rot themselves. Additionally, fungi often employ some pretty powerful enzymes for breaking down organic matter (like what you and I are made of--you don't want to be digested by your food) and some contain toxic peptides, both of which are easily denatured by heating.

Title: Re: Is "organic" food safe to eat?
Post by: syhprum on 02/09/2015 23:22:03

The only time I would buy "organic food" is when the supermarkets sell it off cheap because they can't get rid of it.