Summary Of 106 Science Claims And A Truckful Of Baeloney

What makes food organic or natural? People most often use organic and natural as interchangeable words to describe food; however, there is much more to these descriptions than meets the eye. In his essay, 106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney, William Speed, deliberately states what he believes the word natural is in reference to food: only a mystic word used to describe food that is not completely made of synthetic materials. Commonly, organic food is referred to as the better choice, healthier for one’s life, but one cannot take this to heart without executing further research. Of course, whether organic food is reliable or not is not the only question to be asked. There is also the talk of whether or not organic food is worth the

However, William Speed has quite a common view of natural food: “Chicken labeled “all natural” may have been crammed by the thousands into tight pens, their claws and beaks clipped, and stuffed full of antibiotics they’d never find in that “natural” barnyard.” (Speed, “106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney,” 614) He is over exaggerating to get his point across; treating the chickens in that way appears to be morally wrong; they should have the chance to be chickens, run free on over grassy hills. It all sounds like a wonderful contemplation, but there are people in the world who are dying from starvation, and they could really use larger chickens. Altering chickens or any other type of food product to accommodate for our growing economy may come across as ethically wrong, but the fact is, one must keep in mind that there is a growing economy that requires a copious amount of food to function. If everything went completely organic, there would be no possible way to sustain our growing society. A farmer from the film, Food Inc., which is a documentary on the take-over of chemically processed foods in the grocery stores today, had a similar exaggerated view to William Speed: “We have allowed ourselves to become so disconnected and ignorant about something that is as intimate as the food that we eat.” (Food Inc.) To an extent, as a people, America has lost

Despite the increase in organic buyers, the majority of people do not know how to merely interpret what the word organic even entails. The United States Department of Agriculture enforces and regulates the labeling of organic products, namely food products (cornucopia.org). In addition to the elusiveness of organic foods, organics are apt to be more expensive than conventional food; this is because instead of a huge manufacturing plant, one would be receiving their food products from a small farm (where a small amount of food is being grown and harvested). People choose to argue that organic food is far better for you than conventional or natural food; however, there are only minute differences between the two. Stephanie Watson, an executive editor of Harvard’s Women Health Watch, states:“The researchers discovered very little difference in nutritional content, aside from slightly higher phosphorous levels in many organic foods, and a higher omega-3 fatty acid content in organic milk and chicken” (Harvard.edu). So people raise quite the ruckus over “going organic” for higher phosphorus and omega-3 fatty acids in their food. Phosphorus and calcium are both the most bountiful minerals contained in the body. They are both used to build healthy bones and teeth. Not only does phosphorus help build strong bones, but it also plays