Top Ten Reasons Why I Refuse To Eat Organic (and, as a responsible future mother, will refuse to feed organic foods to my child)

Several followers of my blog are aware that the Crallspace and his friends have launched an attack on all non-organic foods. Crall claims that goldfish crackers and Happy Meals are the cause of obesity in this country. According to his reasoning, if we all ate organic foods we would be skinnny and never suffer health problems. I strongly disagree. Allow me to explain.

1. Minnesota Public Radio: How do you define Organic food?
Organic farmers have a definition for organic food. Each state and local agency has a definition for organic food. However, since there is no national governing definition for organic food, these definitions vary widely. So what is organic food?

2. "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will." -Vince Lombardi
Let's face it. Statistically, it is most highly unlikely that you will ever have a gun put to your head at the fast food counter and be forced to "super size it". It is even more unlikely that said gunman will take your supersize fries and Big Mac and shove them into your mouth. The Happy Meal is actually a fairly healthy choice, even compared to some of the salads offered by McDonald's. Not to mention you get a cool toy with it... Ultimately, though, it is you and only you who decides what you eat. That's why the U.S. House of Representaties has banned frivilous fast-food lawsuits.

3. All good things come in small packages
Studies prove that lean teenagers who eat fast food will compensate by eating less during the rest of the day.
Also, even the Mayo Clinic reccommends fitting fast food into a healthy eating plan.

4. It's all in your head
A groundbreaking Consumer Reports study found that organic produce has no nutritional difference and no noticable difference in taste.

5. It's just plain expensive
Organic food costs more than non-organic produce.

6. Good for what?
Organic foods are good, right? But good for who? Good for me? Good for the environment? Or good for the organic farmers' wallets?

7. Bacteria
The human body can handle spoilage bacteria (bacteria that form when fruits and veggies spoil), but we cannot handle the bacteria from, for example, cow manure, that can make its way onto and into organic produce. ABCNEWS tests found bacteria including E. Coli on more organic broccoli, parsley, celery, and spring greens than conventional produce.

8. Pesticides
ABCNEWS tests found NO pesticide residues on conventional or organic produce. Yet the organic food industry is constantly telling us that we should be worrying about pesticide residue.

9. Organic produce is actually WORSE for the environment than conventional produce.
Because so much of their land is destroyed by weeds and insects, organic farmers waste almost twice as much land as conventional farmers.

10. Betty and hundreds of others like her
Check this: Eight years ago, 80,000 children died each day from starvation. They had nothing to eat, so their bodies slowly ate themselves, turned their muscles and vital organs into calories, until they died. Today we've brought that number down to 29,000. But how can I sit in front of my expensive organic meal while I know that in other parts of the world, kids just like me are dying because they don't have a meal at all? Conventional farmers can grow more, healthier food on less land. Conventional food costs less than organic food. With the money that I save, I can prevent death. For less than $1 each day, I have already given Betty the money to eat and to go to school. How selfish would I be to refuse this much?