The Organic Movement—It started in the first half of the 20th century as a bunch of farmers concerned about the use of synthetic fertilizers. Then—some time in the 1970s—it was co-opted into the environmental extremist movement. Since then, it’s spilled over into every political ideology, and without much resistance.
While I don’t think eating McDonalds three meals a day constitutes a balanced diet, I see no credible evidence that it’s giving people cancer, either. Make no mistake—the organic food movement is just another facet of the progressive agenda.
So, let’s get this part clear: the ultimate goal of the progressive agenda is to consolidate power in the hands of a few. If you don’t believe me, pick a progressive policy and ask yourself if it enhances individual freedom, or restricts it. When you refuse to judge a progressive policy by it’s stated purpose, and instead judge it on its own merit, you will start to see progressivism in an entirely new light.1
To understand how the organic movement is used by the progressive movement at large, it helps to understand some of the tactics used by progressives. The main tactic used by the organic (and progressive) movement is something called Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt— or FUD. It goes like this: what if I told you there’s a dangerous chemical called dihydrogen monoxide. Here are some facts about this chemical:
- This chemical can kill you if only a small amount gets in your lungs.
- It’s a major ingredient in acid rain.
- It’s found in biopsies of cancerous tumors and lesions.
- It’s used as an industrial solvent and coolant.
- Professional athletes use it to enhance their performance.
- It’s used in the production of styrofoam and many plastics.
- It was used in Hitler’s death camps in Nazi Germany.
- It’s used in the manufacturing of chemical and biological weapons.
- It’s found in extremely high amounts in 100% of people diagnosed with heart disease.
If you’re like most people, you probably want nothing to do with this chemical. Now what if I told you that this chemical is used in the production of many foods as an additive and processing agent? Does that make you concerned? Would you support a ban of dihydrogen monoxide? Before you agree too enthusiastically, let me share with you another name for this chemical: water.
This is how FUD works. I’ve just stated a bunch of facts that sound very scary. None of them are factually wrong, but I’m not really telling you the whole truth. I’m twisting facts around to push an agenda. I’m trying to scare you into agreeing with me.
It’s so easy to make this argument with something that sounds really nasty, like formaldehyde or ethylenediaminetetraacetate. If you don’t think very critically, you can easily be swayed into believing these things are everywhere and they’re going to kill you. I could tell you there’s formaldehyde in the apple juice sold by McDonald’s. This one is actually true. Don’t drink the apple juice sold by McDonalds!
Well, that’s not the whole truth. Formaldehyde is present in all apples (and many other fruits). They produce it as they grow. There are trace amounts of formaldehyde in most any fruit-based product—organic or otherwise.
This brings up another question: Why is formaldehyde bad? If it’s in bananas, pears, apples, and a host of other fruits, why are we told it’s bad. The answer lies in something called toxicity. Any well-respected toxicologist will tell you that there’s no such thing as a toxic ingredient—just a toxic dose. Banannas aren’t bad for you because they contain trace amounts of formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is absolutely a carcinogen, but only in doses many times higher than what you could possibly receive from eating fruit.
Toxicity is all about dosage. For example, there’s a nutrient called selenium that’s critical for life, but taken in high doses it’s 100% fatal. In fact, even water in high enough dosage can cause death.
So, it’s not a sound argument to say “X causes cancer, food Y contains X, food Y causes cancer”. At worst, it’s an intellectually dishonest argument, at best, it’s naive. Unfortunately this type of argument seems to be contagious, and a lot of people are profiting from it. Anyone who ascribes to the organic movement seems to be full of facts about foods or ingredients which are supposedly bad for you. If you ask them they’ll usually say they heard it from a reputable source or parrot some variation of the FUD argument I’ve described above. What’s worse is this stuff is starting to make its way into legislation. This leads to further perception of credibility (e.g. “this stuff is BANNED in Great Britain!”).
Now for some practical advice. You can always find a study that says something is bad. I have a general approach I take to this stuff, feel free to develop your own. What I do is 1) follow the money. Who funded the study? That usually gives me a fantastic insight into what the study is going to conclude. 2) Are there other studies about this? What do they conclude? Is there a majority consensus? Where did their funding come from? 3) If I can’t determine the credibility of something, I ignore it.
So, please forget everything you’ve heard about preservatives & GMOs being bad for you, or that processed foods are destroying your insides. Give yourself a blank slate. Then, next time you read an article that makes you think something is bad for you, don’t just lazily follow along. Think very critically. Try to pick it apart. Ask discerning questions. Are they trying to sell you something? Really try to disprove it. If you are unsuccessful, maybe it has some merit. If you’re successful in dismissing it, you just saved yourself from being needlessly afraid or filling your head with another piece of garbage about food.
In closing, I don’t mean to suggest that you should eat everything in sight without any discernment. Are some foods more nutritionally complete than others? Absolutely. A nutritionally balanced diet is important and beneficial. I wouldn’t structure your diet around Hot Pockets and Ramen, but please, don’t be afraid of them either. Maybe avoid them because they taste gross, but not because they’re bad for you.
- Some examples: the War on Poverty has spent many trillions of dollars of hardworking Americans’ money, yet our poverty rate has remained unchanged. Socialized medicine was supposed to make healthcare more affordable, but insurance rates have skyrocketed along with deductibles and the actual cost of care. ↩