Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The great organic debate

Source Website: http://food.insing.com/feature/the-great-organic-debate/id-595e3f00
By Daven Wu, inSing.com - 11 September 2012 9:00 AM | Updated 10:33 AM


Can you show me a picture of the farm where this chicken came from?
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http://food.insing.com/feature/the-great-organic-debate/id-595e3f00


What came first, the kampung chicken... or the organic egg?

It’s difficult to imagine but the concept of organic anything was once completely alien to most people, casually dismissed as the province of fringe hippies, or yuppies with too much disposable income.

Nobody cared too much about the provenance of their food. No one knew what free-range meant. A chicken was a chicken. On encountering a bottle of organic shampoo for the first time, my mother asked the sales assistant if this meant it was edible.

Of course, these days, anything organic carries with it a covetable cache, of virtuous necessity, and guilt-free consumerism. Somehow, it feels better to chow down on an organic, corn-fed free-range chook, especially when you ‘know’ it’s free of antibiotics and growth hormones.



Nothing you produce can be considered organic unless it’s been certified by some functionary in the city who’s never actually visited your farm much less talked to you about your business or philosophy.
PHOTO: Nothing you produce can be considered organic unless it’s been certified by some functionary in the city who’s never actually visited your farm much less talked to you about your business or philosophy.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
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http://img.insing.com/FoodDrink/Features/Organic%20or%20Kampung%20-%20Produce.jpg
http://food.insing.com/feature/the-great-organic-debate/id-595e3f00


And now researchers from Stanford University have concluded what many earlier studies had suspected: namely, that, save for bacterial contamination in certain instances, there is no discernible nutritional difference between organic and non-organic produce.

Not that this will make an iota of difference to you if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool organic loyalist.

For me, though, the Stanford results are timely. The thing is, whatever good intentions may have accompanied the impulse to consume only organic produce have long been lost on our way to the supermarket. The organic industry is bedeviled by commercial opportunism.

Because to qualify as organic, something has to be certified by a recognised governing body. This leaves out in the cold the uncounted honest farmers and artisans who genuinely believe in naturally raised vegetables, fruits and animals, but who, for one reason or another, cannot call themselves organic.

This means that even if you grew your carrots in soil that hasn’t been treated with chemicals, or add growth hormones, additives or antibiotics to your vegetables and animals, and you’ve diligently recycled your food waste as compost, nothing you produce can be considered organic unless it’s been certified by some functionary in the city who’s never actually visited your farm much less talked to you about your business or philosophy.

Which, of course, is nonsense. No one can honestly tell me that lamb that came from sheep that spent their days happily roaming and grazing on wild grass on the slopes of a mountain is inferior to sheep raised in cloistered, overcrowded organic farms. Or that a kampung chicken that foraged for worms in the earth is less healthy than one raised in a sterile, airless factory.

What’s been missing in the debate to date is not whether something is organic or not, and just because something is non-certified organic, it’s necessarily bad. What’s important is the provenance of the product. Where did this pork come from? Is my salmon from a sustainable farm? Can you show me a picture of the farm where this chicken came from?

In other words, yes, consuming food that’s free from growth hormones and chemicals is intuitively a good thing. But that’s a purchasing decision that requires more than just slapping an organic label onto it. Responsible consumerism requires that we put more in asking the right questions than abdicating that responsibility to some nameless conglomerate who, let’s face it, is in it to make money.
By Daven Wu, inSing.com - 11 September 2012 9:00 AM | Updated 10:33 AM


A carefully reformed ex-lawyer, Daven Wu has spent the past decade or so atoning for his former sins by professionally eating out a lot. His chronicled experiences for Appetite Asia, Epicure and Wallpaper* magazines make him no stranger to the vagaries of Singapore’s service industry. These days, he divides his time between London and Singapore, and is prone to waking up in the middle of the night muttering, ‘Laksa!’




PHOTO: Cassowary Chicks with interesting facts
From Singapore Zoo, Australian Animals



PHOTO: Should be the Organic Passion Fruits
From Singapore Zoo



PHOTO: Organic pineapple?
From Singapore Zoo




Beautiful flower
PHOTO: Beautiful flower
From Singapore Zoo
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Could it be organic bean sprout?
Could it be organic bean sprout?
Could it be organic bean sprout?
PHOTO: Could it be organic bean sprout?
From Singapore Zoo
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