ITT: we shall discuss organic food.
The most basic question: is organic food better than conventionally farmed food?
As an individual, is it good for you? What do you think of the nutritional content, as well as taste? Are you a consumer of organic food? Is it worth the extra price? Does it make a big difference in the way your purchase your food or is it secondary to other factors like price and availability?
Do you think organic food is good for society? How do we justify "higher quality" (if we can establish that) when food prices are so expensive to begin with? Is it just a marketing term designed to get more profits - especially when it's difficult to get people to consume more food? Is it important to you to support local organic farming, for economic and environmental reasons?
What do you think of organic food labelling? Organic food has been positioned as consumer-friendly, in that they're aiming to protect the consumer from harmful chemicals found in conventional farming. But wouldn't labelling organic food take away from that - when you reduce it to a yes/no label, isn't that taking away from consumer education and awareness that's inherent to any kind of consumer protection? What about labels eroding standards instead of raising them? It seems counterintuitive, but if large agricultural companies dominate the standard-setting process, then they could dilute the high standards and lead to pricing out smaller farms, ruining their business.
Is organic food production limiting on the potentials of agriculture? With genetic engineering you could probably design higher yield or quality food. Yet organic food sales are growing around 20% year on year. What's the future, organic or GMOs?
Lots of questions to raise, so discuss!
The most basic question: is organic food better than conventionally farmed food?
As an individual, is it good for you? What do you think of the nutritional content, as well as taste? Are you a consumer of organic food? Is it worth the extra price? Does it make a big difference in the way your purchase your food or is it secondary to other factors like price and availability?
Do you think organic food is good for society? How do we justify "higher quality" (if we can establish that) when food prices are so expensive to begin with? Is it just a marketing term designed to get more profits - especially when it's difficult to get people to consume more food? Is it important to you to support local organic farming, for economic and environmental reasons?
What do you think of organic food labelling? Organic food has been positioned as consumer-friendly, in that they're aiming to protect the consumer from harmful chemicals found in conventional farming. But wouldn't labelling organic food take away from that - when you reduce it to a yes/no label, isn't that taking away from consumer education and awareness that's inherent to any kind of consumer protection? What about labels eroding standards instead of raising them? It seems counterintuitive, but if large agricultural companies dominate the standard-setting process, then they could dilute the high standards and lead to pricing out smaller farms, ruining their business.
Is organic food production limiting on the potentials of agriculture? With genetic engineering you could probably design higher yield or quality food. Yet organic food sales are growing around 20% year on year. What's the future, organic or GMOs?
Lots of questions to raise, so discuss!