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Is Non-Organic a No-Brainer?

By milhayser on September 21, 2012.

A Stanford University analysis of over 200 nutritional studies found little evidence that organic food is better for you than conventional food. But health is affected by more than vitamins and minerals; for example by the chemical chlorpyrifos, which was banned for indoor use but continues to be sprinkled on our food crops. In California’s Salinas Valley, which grows greens for the entire nation, children exposed to chlorpyrifos and other pesticides are, well, stupider. As Elizabeth Grossman writes on The Pump Handle, “the higher the exposure, the lower the IQ score.” Researchers observing effects within the brain noticed “thinning in some areas and abnormal enlargement in others.” But there are bigger issues than brain damage surrounding organic food and well-being. On Casaubon’s Book, Sharon Astyk writes “what we really need is an agriculture that isn’t saturated in fossil fuels. […] Small scale, sustainable, mostly organic may be the only way we can avoid starving the world.”

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brain damage
Organics
pesticide

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