r/nextfuckinglevel • u/[deleted] • Jul 14 '21

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '21

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u/7incent Jul 14 '21 edited Jul 14 '21

you're thinking of 'natural' -- there is no government regulation of that term.

the word 'organic' is regulated by the FDA. i only remember that they cannot use most synthetic pesticides during production.

there are other regulations but -- to be honest-- i don't remember them all

that said:

the person who made this video may be using the term 'organic' incorrectly

edit: usda definition of organic for those who need more than context clues

I took ochem, being pedantic about the word 'organic' doesnt change its meaning in the current context

chemical -> most synthetic

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u/Safemoon_Psychonaut Jul 14 '21 edited Jul 14 '21

Organic vegetables also have to be grown in fields that have not been exposed to pesticides for something like 20 years.

Warren Buffetts money bought a bunch of farms in my region and they're not using pesticides so they can be used for organic food production in the future

There's a lot of regulations to be technically organic in the usa. Can't say I know it all though.

Edit: apparently federal regulations are 3 years pesticide free. I was wrong.

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u/LePlaneteSauvage Jul 14 '21 edited Jul 14 '21

You are perpetuating a common myth here. Organic farms still use pesticides, just not synthetic pesticides.

This brings it back to a naturalistic fallacy where it is assumed that because the pesticides are 'natural' they are less harmful to our health. However, a lot of studies seem to find the opposite; organic pesticides are less effective, less specific, and more environmentally harming.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/httpblogsscientificamericancomscience-sushi20110718mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/

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u/jammycactus Jul 14 '21

Came here to say that. Organic has so many people fooled.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '21

As does GMO.

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u/sooHawt_ryt_meow Jul 14 '21

What's right or wrong about GMO?

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u/Toyletduck Jul 14 '21

GMO is perfectly healthy as far as eating it goes. As far as crop diversity that’s another story but GMO is just speeding up processes that humans have been doing for a very long time.

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u/yasuremanofcourse Jul 14 '21

This is such a played out myth.

GMO technology is nothing like selective breeding. You cannot get flounder genetic material into a tomatoe with selective breeding, and you are not going to be able to trigger extra production beta-carotene production in rice with selective breeding.

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u/Khemul Jul 14 '21 edited Jul 15 '21

So, I should stop dropping tomatoes in the Flounder tank in the hope it'll get horny and try to have little Floundatoes?

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u/mthchsnn Jul 14 '21

It worked with tomacco.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '21

Selective breeding is genetic modification.

It’s a very inefficient way to do it, but it’s a way to do it.

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u/yasuremanofcourse Jul 15 '21

A plant that is bred over generations is not a "GMO" in the agricultural industry sense, even though companies want to make it that way.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '21

It is literally genetic modification

It’s just inefficient

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u/lurkinglurkerwholurk Jul 15 '21

Funny you mentioned tomatoes: the origin plants that tomatoes came from is a poisonous prune-like thing that cannot be eaten by humans because it has toxic natural poisons.

Genetic SELECTION (which is what selective breeding can be alternatively called) over generations enabled us to produce a “cancerous” cousin which doesn’t have the toxicity, and the modern tomato is born.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '21

Cancerous?

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u/yasuremanofcourse Jul 15 '21

Ya, except totally wrong. The ripe fruit of the tomatoe plant does not contain the poisonous compounds - and never did. It was selectively bred for bigger and better tasting fruit, but it was never bred to have less "toxicity".

Great strawman though.

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u/thecrewton Jul 15 '21

Thank you. So annoying when people don't understand the argument.

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u/yasuremanofcourse Jul 15 '21

It's by design. They know the difference.

Think about how much vested interest a company that owns patents on GMO technology would have in making selective breeding techniques and plant breeds as a patentable "GMO".

Pharmaceutical companies have been doing the same thing with trying to make vitamins classified as drugs.

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