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Do you care where the food you eat comes from?

With an increasing trend towards vegetarianism, organic foods, and many similar notions, I thought I'd bring up the topic of our food and where it comes from. Most of us know of the different options available, but how important is this to you personally?

For me, I do care where the food comes from; I'm vegetarian, and try to buy fairtrade/organic where I can, but I find that being a student can make this challenging sometimes for the latter two. It's definitely something I'd like to improve upon when I have a larger disposable income! :yep:

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Yes I do care where my food comes from.

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Original post by shadowdweller
With an increasing trend towards vegetarianism, organic foods, and many similar notions, I thought I'd bring up the topic of our food and where it comes from. Most of us know of the different options available, but how important is this to you personally?

For me, I do care where the food comes from; I'm vegetarian, and try to buy fairtrade/organic where I can, but I find that being a student can make this challenging sometimes for the latter two. It's definitely something I'd like to improve upon when I have a larger disposable income! :yep:


Organic food means food grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Most of us tend to think, organic food is good food because it's "without chemicals". However, the true story is organic food is grown using.... organic pesticides. This obviosuly can be good... but also bad.

If you want a long read click here
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2015/a-pesticide-as-medicine-medicine-as-poison-or-what-is-in-a-name-2/

Relevant context:

“The most recent episode was an outbreak of “killer zucchini” which produced the “only food scare in recent history in New Zealand” and interestingly it “stemmed from the farming methods of organic farmers and others who use unconventional farming practices” (LSN 2003).

In February 2003, Zucchini with “high levels of natural toxins” was sold on the vegetable market and resulted in “several recorded cases of people suffering food poisoning” (LSN 2003). We often worry about the toxicity resulting from spraying crops but rarely are we as concerned about those from not spraying them.

“An examination of common factors shows the levels of toxin apparently increased among zucchini growers who did not spray their crops. Unusual climatic conditions meant there were huge numbers of aphids about in January and insect predation is sometimes associated with increased levels of toxins in plants (LSN 2003).


Conclusion of the above: Organic vegetables can develop their own resistance to fight off the pest, bacteria or fungi. In the absence of pesticides/fungicides, uch resistance are likely to be packing dangerous toxins that could be potentially life threatening to humans or any animal that decides to chew on it.

Conclusion for my post: Organic food isn't necessarily healthy and you could be hurting yourself (and spending obscenely) under the illusion that you are being healthy :smile:

Hey @viddy9, do you agree with this post :biggrin:
Original post by shadowdweller
With an increasing trend towards vegetarianism, organic foods, and many similar notions, I thought I'd bring up the topic of our food and where it comes from. Most of us know of the different options available, but how important is this to you personally?

For me, I do care where the food comes from; I'm vegetarian, and try to buy fairtrade/organic where I can, but I find that being a student can make this challenging sometimes for the latter two. It's definitely something I'd like to improve upon when I have a larger disposable income! :yep:


Nope I don't care
In principle I do but in practice I don't.
Yes, I only buy free range dairy at the supermarket and if I can't find/afford them, I'll go without.
I try to also do this when I go out, but that's quite difficult to do and I don't always follow it through.
Reply 6
Yes, I do care about where food comes from. No slaughterhouses or factory farms for me!

In terms of geographical location, I'd rather buy from abroad if it helps to improve the living standards of people in poorer countries, because distance is unlikely to matter much when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions: transportation from producer to consumer only accounts for 4% of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, so the concept of food miles is relatively useless.

Tomatoes grown in an energy-consuming greenhouse in Britain will be responsible for more emissions than in-season tomatoes grown in Spain. But, in-season local food is fine, though again it's not guaranteed that greenhouse gas emissions will be lower, because production matters more.

Original post by TaintedLight
Organic food means food grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Most of us tend to think, organic food is good food because it's "without chemicals". However, the true story is organic food is grown using.... organic pesticides. This obviosuly can be good... but also bad.

If you want a long read click here
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2015/a-pesticide-as-medicine-medicine-as-poison-or-what-is-in-a-name-2/

Relevant context:



Conclusion of the above: Organic vegetables can develop their own resistance to fight off the pest, bacteria or fungi. In the absence of pesticides/fungicides, uch resistance are likely to be packing dangerous toxins that could be potentially life threatening to humans or any animal that decides to chew on it.

Conclusion for my post: Organic food isn't necessarily healthy and you could be hurting yourself (and spending obscenely) under the illusion that you are being healthy :smile:

Hey @viddy9, do you agree with this post :biggrin:


I do indeed!
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by cherryred90s
Nope I don't care


Any reason for this, or just not interested in the origins? :holmes:
Unless food shopping is from Waitrose, Selfridges, Fortnum's or Harrods I won't eat it. Places like Asda and Aldi make my skin crawl; I need be be assured that I'm eating quality products for me to put it in my body.
yes, it must come from Waitrose™
Reply 10
Original post by the bear
yes, it must come from Waitrose™


Bit too upmarket for us bear, most of us are students :frown: Iceland is the one..
Original post by shadowdweller
Any reason for this, or just not interested in the origins? :holmes:

I think that I'm just not interested
Yes, but not only from organic sources but also that it is UK grown/reared or EU. I don't want my food to have travelled thousands of miles and is from places where laws about farming are different.
Nah, sustenance is sustenance
:france: = bonus
I'm not particularly bothered, mainly because I see there as being suffering for animals either way (although yes i m not a vegetarian), occasionally i'll buy free range eggs but otherwise all of our food is as cheap as it can be.
When you're trying to make decent savings, i feel food is the one thing i have a lot of control over cutting the cost of, and organic food is well out of budget for us.
I don't troll, I just have high standards. The fact that I won't shovel crap into my mouth doesn't mean I'm not serious. I'm not an idiot teenager who buys Monster energy drink and Space Raiders, who sits on a wall in the middle of nowhere in the cold, with their 'mates'.
If you mean my life, then of course I will, I have no reason to stop. I do write helpful posts; earlier I posted about nursing and received eight reputation points. I'm not a troll, I just speak my mind, which is something most people seem to be scared of doing,
Absolutely, and to anyone else who does I wholly recommend checking out the Marine Conservation Society's Good Fish Guide app for all your sustainable seafood needs!
I don't eat animal products but I'm not too fussy about organic/GMOs etc. I do like to buy local produce but don't necessarily make a habit out of it.


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