Dialogue of Sources

JD: Lately, there has been quite a discussion about whether organic foods are better than non-organic foods or if the two are equal. I have brought in some farmers and experts to let us know their opinion on the difference between the two. Organic Farmers and Growers are a leading UK organic control that inspect and license organic food and farming. Jenni Snook is a natural health and personal development expert against the use of organic foods. I also brought in a specialist, H. Young, to give us some feedback and see what he believes is best. So first I would just like to start off by asking you, where do each of you stand on the issue against organic food?

OFG: It has been such a battle to get shoppers to trust us and to buy organic products. The biggest argument we hear, 25% of our respondents, is that non-organic is just as good as organic. What we do not understand is how you cannot see that organic food is better. We need to get our respondents to understand what our organic products offer. We take pride in our methods of producing our products and protecting our animals welfare. It is not that our products are of better quality, but rather the pride we take in the way that our food is produced. Maybe if our responders knew that we are not responsible for soil depletion, or that we let our animals range outdoors, or that we do not use poisonous herbicides they would think differently.

JS: People go back and forth as to whether or not organic is better than non-organic. A study done in 2002 showed that some organics revealed some pesticide residue as well, which means that organic food still needs to be washed just like non-organic. Some chemists believe that any chemical food residue does not cause cancer, but there has been studies to show that half of all natural chemicals do cause cancer. As for the soil depletion it is found that it is not due to the organic product, but rather to the crop rotation done while growing the plant. It is harder for organic farms to keep mold, pests, and other diseases from their crops which results in a greater crop loss and causing these farmers to take longer a time and more land to produce their products. As for treating the animals better I believe that all farmers care about there animals and would treat them with respect. I think the only time that you see people mistreating their animals is when the business grows too big and they are focusing more on the money.

HY: The term organic means different things in different countries because each country has its own guidelines as to what can be declared organic, but in most countries the rate of organic farmers is going up. The main thing agreed upon in most countries is that organic food does not contain any GMOs whatsoever. A GMO is a genetically modified organism, and it goes against everything that organic is all about. In fact some countries are starting to ban GMOs all together. Some countries in Europe have been banned all together. Farmers use the GMOs to inject genes so that the crop or animal will produce pesticides all on its own. As for the studies that say that there is pesticides in organics, it is almost nearly impossible because people from the health department check in on all of the organic farms to make sure that they are running them properly. As for the natural pesticides or chemicals that people think organic farmers use, they really rarely use them at all. If they do it is just to fight pests, and they need to get permission from the health department before they do so. Jenni is right on the mistreatment of animals. Most farmers love their animals and would never do anything to harm them. Research has shown that mostly the mistreatment of animals have been found in bigger industries that care more about getting the product and the money.

Working Hypothesis

Farmers all over the nation have been switching to organic farming to reach a wide variety of costumers and to make more money, but is it really worth it?  Lately, there has been a big debate going around whether it is worth it to buy organic foods rather non-organic foods.  Some people believe that there is no difference between the two and it is just a waste of money.  In a letter to the editor I came across the woman believes that you do not need to waste your money on organic foods or fat free foods because they are just as equal as non-organics with pesticides.  She says to enjoy your strawberries in January, which was once unimaginable.  I believe that there has to be some advantage to eating organics instead of non-organics.  I am going to look into this research and see which organics are better, or if there are some organics that are equal to non-organics.  There are several studies done on each of these and I am going to figure out if there really is a difference between the two.

Annotated Bibliography

Dangour, Alan D., et al. "Nutrition-related health effects of organic foods: a systematic review."American journal of clinical nutrition 92.1 (2010): 203-210. Agricola. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2010.

This article was a review of all of the articles from January 1, 1958, to September 15, 2008, about organic foods and whether or not they are helpful. They found that there is no significant benefit for eating organic rather than non-organic. I think this source can be credible, but the only chose 12 out of over 98,000 articles and they could have been a little bias on the ones the picked. There could have been other articles that gave organics more credit as to being healthier. This source is relevant to my argument because it goes along with Betsy's argument, so, I can use this article for my farmer's position to show that there is no significant difference. 

MacRae, R., et al. "Ten percent organic within 15 years: Policy and program initiatives to advance organic food and farming in Ontario, Canada [electronic resource]." Renewable agriculture and food systems24.2 (2009): 120-136. Agricola. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2010.

This article is from Canada and states that organic is the way to go. This is a key article for my letter back to Betsy because I can use it to prove that it has shown that organics have shown to be more healthier. The article states that "substantial environmental and economic benefits can arise from organic farming adoption." This article states that Canada is trying to become mostly organic after 15 years having 5,343 organic farmers. This article is a little helpful showing that there are advantages to going organic and little but of a farmers view, but it talks mostly about the farmers so I think I am going to find another article to really show the advantages of going organic. 

Research Proposal

Are Organic Foods Better than Non-Organic?

Today people buy organic foods because they believe that they are safer and more healthier for you, but there are so many organic companies now how can you be sure that they are truly organic? There are the bigger organic companies and the smaller organic companies. Some companies just use partly organic, while others are fully organic. Some people are questioning whether organic foods are even that much better for you than non-organic foods, and they want to know if it is worth it to pay higher prices for these foods just because the label says they are healthier. 

Betsy Hart is a mother who wrote a letter to argue that there is no difference between organic and non-organic foods. She persuades her audience to just stick with the cheaper foods made with pesticides. She states that studies have shown that there is no difference between the two. She would rather save money and stick with the cheaper foods because she truly believes there is no difference between them.  She states that doctors and researchers have done studies and they have shown that life expectancy has gone up and cancer patients has gone down all while we have been eating pesticides and strawberries in January, which was once unthinkable.

This letter interested me because I wanted to find out more about organics and whether or not there really is a difference. Betsy states all these facts but never gives exact information about a specific study or researcher.  So I am going to look up studies done by researchers to find out whether or not non-organic food is the same as organic foods. I think that there has to be a difference just simply because pesticides are poison, and I do not think that eating them is the reason our life expectancy has gone up and our cancer patients has gone down. 

Methods

I am going to use the library's resources to find helpful articles to back up my beliefs so that I can write a believable argument against Betsy. I want to find articles that talk about the differences between organic and non-organic foods. I am going to look into whether or not eating pesticides has lowered cancer patients and risen the life expectancy. I am then going to consider a farmer's point of view for my third letter. I am going to research what farmers believe, and what they go through to make these products. I want to figure their point of view on the subject and why they choose to use pesticides instead of going organic, and I want to know whether they believe there is a difference or not between the two.

Sources

I found two articles. One stating that there is no difference between organics and non-organics, and the other stating that there is a benefit to going with organics. I going to go over each of these articles to see their opinions and what research they did to conclude to this opinion. 

Timeline

11/2 - Research Proposal Due

11/2 - 11/4 Begin Researching Topic using Alden Online Databases

11/4 - Working Hypothesis Due and Annotated Bibliography Due

11/4 - 11/8 Continue Researching and Begin Rough Draft

11/9 - Rough Draft of Final Paper Due

11/9- 11/11 Revise Paper

11/11 - Final Draft Due

Significance

I hope to find that there is a difference between organic and non-organic foods. I am not really sure on which position I take yet because I have never really looked into the topic. I am hoping to find which one is better so that I can take a stance for it and write an excellent letter back to Betsy arguing my opinion. I am also extremely interested in researching the farmer's point of view because I would like to know how much more expensive or difficult it is to become an organic farm. I am simply interested to find out whether organic is the way to go or not because I know people that will only eat organic, so I'm interested to find out if there wasting their time and money or if it really is better to eat all organic foods. 

Rogerian Argument

The main argument in my letter is that this woman believes that there is no difference between organic and non organic food.  She thinks that people should buy the cheap, processed foods rather than the expensive organics because they are equal. She supports her theory by using a recent piece in Time Magazine where a doctor states that eating organic food is not any safer than eating produce with fertilizers and pesticides. She mostly just states her side and why she believes they are the same, but she does state some reasons why people would buy organics over non-organics. She states all the benefits of organics, but then she refutes them saying there really is no difference between the two.  She uses studies and magazines to refute the idea that organic has more nutrients and is healthier than non-organic. I think she defines the issue very well, she has evidence to support her issue and states her opinion right away. 

Betsy Hart believes that buying organic foods is just a waste of money. She does not believe that low-fat foods or healthier foods are worth your time. She believes to stick with the cheap fertilized and pesticide foods. She states that organics are too expensive and a waste of money. She talks about Time magazine and studies stating that their is no difference between the two, but she does not refer to specific studies. She states that people have been eating them for years and our life expectancy has gone up and there have been less cases of cancer, but she does not take into account that this could be due to something else. There may be one study that shows that organics are not healthier than non organics, but there also have been studies that show they are healthier. Think about it your putting poison in your body, how could it not be healthier to have organics instead?

At a Glance

There aren't very many topics that interest me. I rarely pass by the news seeing something that catches my eye, and I hate politics. They bore me and I just do not care to talk about them. One topic I do like to hear about is problems in rural cities. Whether they have problems because they are poor or they are flowing with criminals I like to see what is going on with them and what the government is doing (or not doing) to help. I think cities have been becoming too poor causing children to not get an appropriate education. Without kids getting the education they need and their families not having money it leads them to get into trouble and join gangs for protection and find other illegal ways to make money.

I also like to read about the recent noise violations here at OU. I think these violations are getting a little ridiculous. In an article I read a few weeks ago, said that the police have given away double what they gave away all of last year in just the beginning weeks of this quarter. Its always interesting to read about topics that you have been a part of and I have been at parties where people have gotten a noise violation a few times. One, was not even a party we were just hanging out on my friends balcony. I think the police have been overreacting a little too much this year. 

Letter to the Editor

The letter I chose is from a resident of Athens complaining about the other citizens of Athens who are complaining about the loud noise ordinance.  He believes that people need to stop complaining about the loud noises when they live in a college town. He bashes the police and says that they are acting like "puritans" and trying to take away all of the happiness the students have. He makes a good point stating that the police do not say anything about leaf blowers, mufflers, or horns, and even though they are going off during they day they still show to have stressful effects.

I, of course, totally agree that this noise law is a little bit too ridiculous. I like how he pointed out that this is a college town and people have been putting up with these conditions for years, I do not get why all of sudden they need to shut down parties because they are getting to loud.  I think he did a good job putting this letter together, but I would have made it a little more formal to get more attention.  He calls the policemen all sorts of names throughout the letter, when these are the people who have the power to change the law.  If I were writing this letter I would not call them names because this will just make them angry and not even pay attention to the letter. 

Letter to the Editor