Whole Foods' "Organic" products grown in China!

[coyote]

ABC 7 I-Team Investigates: Organic Foods

WITH 175 STORES… WHOLE FOODS IS THE UNDISPUTED LEADER IN ORGANIC FOODS AND PROMOTES "LOCALLY GROWN." BUT THE I-TEAM HAS FOUND THAT MUCH OF WHOLE FOODS ORGANICS… ARE IMPORTED FROM CHINA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ31Ljd9T_Y

[upi402]

1. Thank you for this!

k/r

[vadawg]

2. rofl oh oh looks like its back to the drawing board....

grow you own if you can...

[avaistheone1]

3. Like I am going to trust China with organic quality food?

Don't think so.

[paulsby]

4. as soon as i see any solid evidence that organics are HEALTHIER

i might care.

every study i've seen shows no statistically significant difference

[upi402]

6. do you have links handy?

seems i've seen the opposite but it was many years ago
have you seen the film, FOOD INC. ?

[paulsby]

7. yes, i've seen food, inc

that's not a peer reviewed study by a long shot

some studies have shown a SMALL difference. certainly not one that can make up for the significant difference in price.

fwiw, i grow a fair amount of my OWN produce. organically.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE56S3ZJ20090729
"A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference.

"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors.

"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."

[eridani]

8. You're forgetting that most people buy organic food because of what is NOT in it

Herbicides, pesticides. gene modification, etc. I would surely not trust China on this score.

[paulsby]

9. i am aware of that

but even a cursory knowledge of science means that you should know pesticides, etc. are not "in " the food.

show me an actual chemical difference in the flesh of a pesticide treated plant

i;'ll stand by.

[eridani]

10. With some GMO crops they sure the hell are. n/t

[paulsby]

11. GMO is not what i was talking about

we were talking ORGANICS vs. non-organics

show me a difference between organics and non-organics (both NON GMO) that is statistically significant and even comes close ot making up for the price difference.

like i said, pesticides are not IN the food, unless you can show me evidence they are

[eridani]

14. GMOs are automatically non-organic

No consumer would regard any GMO as organic. Pesticide residues can of course be dealt with by washing, but a lot of people would prefer to support the farmers who are growing food without using them.

[paulsby]

17. great and that's my point

one can buy NON GMO (i personally could not care less if it's GMO but that's another issue entirely) and still buy NON organic and save a metric assload of money

organic or NOT, i am going to wash it, unless it came from MY garden.

so, again.

organics you pay a lot extra for no statistically different health benefit.

heck, no benefit at all that i can see apart from FEELING good about it.

double blind taste tests, people ROUTINELY fail to identify a taste difference.

i have no problem with choosing to support farmers who grow organic

i choose to support farmers who offer VALUE for my money, and that generally means NON organic. so, we can both make our choices.

my only point was that it's rubbish that there is nutritional or health benefits to organics, or at least that come REMOTELY close to accounting for the price difference

i am glad we can agree on that

[aquart]

12. Yeah, because Silent Spring never happened.

[paulsby]

18. of course it did. nice irrelevancy.

but that was DDT. try to keep up

they don't use DDT in modern farming.

we don't use whale oil either for our street lights

so by supporting lighting of public sidewalks, i am not advocating killing whales

and by supporting farmers who use pesticides, i am not supporting use of DDT

hth

[era veteran]

26. DDT used in Mexico & Central America

Lots of imports from south of the border.

[Go2Peace]

13. Paulsby, please....

come on, argue honestly. Semantics don't make your argument more credible. Sure, pesticides don't chemically become part of food, but they do end up other places besides the external layer of the skin. They do migrate internally into vegetables and fruit, and they can be brought through the root system.

You also do not do justice to the pesticides that end up in the water tables and in the environment.

You sound like someone 50 years ago fighting people who are saying that Smoking does not cause cancer.

[Ignis]

22. A brave try, but also a quixotic one, I fear.

:hi:

[blueworld]

16. I think that's a specious argument

There are pesticide residues on the produce, many of which can't be scrubbed off conventionally. The farm workers who pick the stuff, the workers who transport it, the supermarket stockers - all these folks absorb the pesticide residue through their skin before anyone takes a bite.

The pesticides contaminate soil & also water which is certainly ingested. Here's an old article from 2008 with some excellent facts: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/349263_pesticide30.html

When children have detectable levels of pesticide in their bodies from produce consumption, I really don't care whether it's "in" the food or water or soil. These chemicals absolutely interfere with biological nutrition absorption & digestive processes. Therefore, in my opinion, organically grown is certainly healthier & more nutritious.

[upi402]

21. Great! Thanks. Have you seen the sex changing herbicide story?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/atrazine-and-disease/
Male frogs turning female due to herbicide - not even a more dangerous pesticide.

I always thought systemic pesticides were a real and valid issue. Also I consider contaminated run-off water and affected insects an issue of concern.

My concern on extra cost; is it ACTUALLY organic and not a marketing bait and switch with a sticker on it.

[DeSwiss]

25. The article you cite.....

...while noteworthy, is about comparing the relative nutritional values between organically vs. non-organically grown foods. It is not about the growing and consuming of foods that are laden with pesticides and herbicides, which is a totally different issue.

It is not just a question of whether we're getting higher amounts of nutrients in organically grown foods; but it is a question of whether we're being poisoned from the pesticides and herbicides that are used in non-organically grown foods. Poisons that in many cases we know are deleterious to mammalian life and very likely to human life as well.

- All of which is possible because of a weak oversight system of the EPA and the FDA, which appear to favor greed and business -- over people's lives.....

[era veteran]

15. Perhaps you should read Rodale

[upi402]

23. 4 year EU study shows organic healthier

You wont get studies like this funded here where big agra rules. So here's a study from the EU;
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/organic-food-is-healthier-and-safer-fouryear-eu-investigation-shows-395483.html

"Up to 40 per cent more antioxidants..."
"organic milk contains 60 per cent more antioxidants and desirable fatty acids"
"Organic milk contains higher amounts of vitamin E"
"Potatoes, kiwi fruit and carrots were among the organic produce found to be higher in vitamin C"
"Higher levels of minerals
and antioxidants were found in organically- farmed lettuce, spinach and cabbage"

Not studied is the actuarial, follow-up instances of increased health problems of conventional food vs. organic.
Anyone have a link for long-term medical ramifications?

[northofdenali]

5. Whole Foods is an overprices, overmarketed fraud.

And has been for years.

[amborin]

19. remember the chemicals in China's dairy products? totally untrustworthy for food & many other items

[QC]

20. Is night soil considered an organic fertilizer? n/t

[DeSwiss]

24. The corruption and greed in this country.....

...is becoming overwhelmingly sickening.

- K&R

[Bluenorthwest]

27. Whole Frauds Market has always been a sham

[donheld]

28. k & R & Shared

[thesquanderer]

29. Bogus report

They didn't actually find any problems in any of the food.

They did a typical media trick of association by juxtaposition... "this organic food is from China" followed by "there has been trouble with food from China" which is supposed to lead you to believe there has been trouble reported with organic food from China, which has not been the case... and has continued to not be the case subsequent to this years-old report.

This was a non-news story. The kind of nonsense that local stations seem to like best.