16. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Dec 04, 2006, 3:27 pm PST

I don't have anything against people who choose organic way of life. The price of purified water is expensive and I don't see producers spending their money on the water. Most of our rivers, lakes, and oceans are polluted and won't get any better and if they do they will not be better in our lifetime or our children's lifetime. In fact, they will probably continue to get worse. Unfortunatly our world will not stop polluting our earth so in the future when our grandchildren are fighting to get food and water they are probably not going to care whether the food they eat is organic or not. They will eat whatever they get their hands on. The few of us in the world that does care, we are a minority and it won't matter anyway.

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17. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Dec 04, 2006, 8:28 pm PST

#10: start filtering your watering if you're worried about polluted water. get a water filtration system in your home. anything from reverse osmosis to a simple carbon filter in a plastic container will reduce the toxins in your glass of water. because some people filter their water and some people don't, I don't think we are all really drinking the same water. some have more toxins in their water supply than others. also, there are environmentally friendly washes out there for fruits and veges that will remove up to 95% of the pesticide residue. do a little research before assuming it won't make any difference to take any action. no, it won't stop others from polluting. all you can do is try to remove the pollutants from your environment as best as you can short of becoming an environmental activist.

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18. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Dec 05, 2006, 2:57 am PST

I still thank Dr Margolis for the informative article. Up until this year I've had to be very frugal with my money and only occasionally splurged on organic produce. This year (through marriage) I am now able to afford whatever I want but as I tell people "I can now spend money but I still won't waste money" and it seems to me that as an individual I am wasting my money if I buy organic. But there is the bigger picture than me. One is the waterways. The other are the farm workers especially the female workers. How does working with pesticide laden plants affect them? I know that working on organic farms is not perfection either. Because pesticides are not used, the workers have to pull weeds by hand and that causes all sorts of repetitious injuries. I've worked physical hard labor for the past 21 years and I know all about injuries but I have health insurance. Great insurance. Not only that but I have the Union and I have worker's compensation when I'm injured on the job. Do these organic farm workers have such protection? I tend to doubt it. Most likely they get paid quite a small amount to keep the organic prices low enough for us to buy and most likely the farm workers probably can't even afford to buy the organic that they work so hard to produce for us. I just don't know. I just don't know. I don't want anyone hurt for my benefit and so I don't want the waterways polluted for my benefit. I don't want workers exposed to potentially harmful pesticides but I also don't want anyone injured from bending over repeatedly. Maybe the answer, as with so many answers, is to go back to the way things were. Maybe we should all strive to buy enough property to provide food for our own families. My farmer grandparents came to this country to "get ahead". I love my life and I love the excellent health I have and personally, I don't want to change a thing.

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19. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Wed, Dec 06, 2006, 1:27 am PST

1. Your article is pretty second-rate. I especially choked on your quote from a newspaper quoting some random organic-eater. You actually use his foolishness to make your column sound smarter? And as for your 8 year old FDA reports, I think people have a right not to trust them and to be disappointed with the FDA in general. Stop wasting our time. 2. I hope our race dies out. It's the most destructive force on this planet.

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20. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Wed, Dec 06, 2006, 5:43 am PST

#19 as I see it- our race will die out, perhaps even all people. Perhaps just a select few will remain to carry on and begin all over again. I don't see that as good or bad. I see it as inevitable.

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21. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Fri, Dec 29, 2006, 9:53 am PST

I make my living as a certified organic farmer. I have to follow very rigid rules about when I put certain inputs on my fields and make sure there are buffer zones to prevent any possible contamination of waterways, etc, even from the natural inputs we use. The people who posted to this forum who were worried about the water supply need to look into the effects that conventional farming's chemical runoff has on that water supply. Supporting organic farming is about so much more than just the end product. And as far as comment that organic food is not more nutritious that conventionally grown, that depends on whose study you read and what criteria is used. There have been many studies, especially in Europe, that give hard evidence that organic produce can have significantly higher levels of certain nutrients.

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22. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sat, Dec 30, 2006, 10:14 pm PST

Pfft... Europe is politically motivated. However, I imagine your statement about organic being better for the environment is correct. They are both destructive and organic is no godsend in current history and more likely to kill people. GMO can solve both the problems and has and has already made strides even though some crops are grown to work with pesticides such as the roundup ready variety. Other GMO technologies are working with other forms of pest tolerance, nutrition and even salt and drought tolerance. That is really the future. I found both of his articles to be moderate, informative and in such a limited context accurate. Before you freak out reading this comment read his first article. The comment section is much larger and I've posted to 'some' concerns at the end. Other concerns throughout.

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23. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Dec 31, 2006, 4:41 am PST

I find this article a little disconserting, only because it seems to undermind the good things that organic farming is doing for our bodies and mother earth. Not to mention that I really can't put any credit into what the FDA labels as safe. How many food recalls, and medication recalls have there been from things the FDA labeled as safe? Thanks but no thanks.

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24. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Dec 31, 2006, 5:17 am PST

Thanks for the article but, there are more than pesticides contained in conventionally-grown produce. Fungicides and growth hormones, to name a few, are not very natural. I believe natural is good.

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25. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Sun, Dec 31, 2006, 4:41 pm PST

I find it hard to "swallow" that a person with such a high level of education would make such generalizations of information. When you talk about organic foods, Mr. Margolis,what foods are you talking about? I am a promoter of organic foods but am also money conscious. And through reading, such publications as "Organic Gardening," have come to determine that some foods with thick skins,such as bananas and oranges are not really worth the extra cost of going organic, but for such things as milk,eggs,cheese--dairy items I definetely try to buy organic. This is, not soley from pesticides as you only talked about, but because of the hormones and antibiotics and other drugs,including the unhealthy environments the animals are subject to to make them produce more. I also do not agree with the statement that organic foods are not more nutritious. According to an article I read from the Journel Sentinel(which I unfortunately could not find for the date of publication), a study found that organic corn can have up to twice the amount of antioxidants in it as non-organic corn. Also as another person commented, the pesticides and herbicides used on plants that get into the ground water is more of a concern to me. And I don't believe it would be that hard to keep contaminated water off of organic producers fields. One would ideally hope to have a nice chunk of land to organic farm on in the first place, which is easier to find in the country somewhere, where a private well would be used. If they have enough acreage,marsh land around them,or other types of land where it is hard for other non-organic producers to grow, they will have basically chemical-free water. Also, even without lots of land,if your well is fairly shallow, most of the water from your well should be from your own land anyways. And although I do not know how pesticides and other chemicals affect rain water, catching rain water could also be a good alternative. With all this said I also feel that plant chemicals are not some huge problem that we'll never get away from. I don't know what the regulations are in other states, but I believe in Wisconsin, one must plant on land free of pesticides and herbicides for the past 3 years to be Certified Organic. I would believe that means the soil and organic compounds and micro-organisms have cleaned up those chemicals fairly well in that time. So, if the world was perfect and all farmers only produced organic products, I believe the water supply and food supply would be much healthier in as little as five years and continue to improve. I also would find it hard to believe that you couldn't tell the difference between a fresh, juicy organic tomatoe and a stiff, rubbery non-organic one.

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26. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Jan 01, 2007, 3:00 pm PST

Buying organic foods is not just about pesticide residue on produce. Organic farms tend to be more ecologically sustainable. Their impact on the environment is less harmful and that is probably worth a few more pennies... This article takes to narrow a focus on the issue and thus doesn't fully present the possible affects of buying organic.

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27. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Wed, Jan 03, 2007, 1:28 pm PST

I don't think that you need to have a degree in nutrition to notice the BIG DIFFERENCE IN THE TASTE of the produce. It would be interesting to compare the percentage of people who have cancers, allergies and other "modern" deceases in countries where pesticides are hardly used and in the USA or the other more "developed" countries. The author of the article didn't inform us about the connection between the toxins stored in our bodies and being overweight (being unable to loose weight). I don't think it is very informative or unbias.

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28. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Wed, Jan 17, 2007, 4:35 pm PST

You may find it interesting to note that pesticides and such used on conventional produce were originally created in WWII. Only then they were used specifically to kill people. Today, we just use dumbed down versions of those pesticides and put them on our food. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there will be long term effects. One just has to take a second to think about it.

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29. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Thu, Jul 05, 2007, 1:05 pm PDT

It's time to get up from behind your desk and go out and actually taste some organic food if you believe it doesn't taste any better. I've been eating organic meats for 5 years now and I noticed immediately a huge taste difference in poultry, beef and hamburger meat. I guess ignorance is bliss, even for a doctor at Johns Hopkins.

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30. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Thu, Jul 05, 2007, 1:06 pm PDT

Mister Margolis is obviously just another pawn of the food and drug admin. of this country....making sure people are confused, misinformed and sick....so he keeps his job! We're on to your kind, Margolis!

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