Organic foods are those produced without the use of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or other inputs. They are invariably marketed as being ‘good for the environment’.
Yet according to researcher and self-described environmentalist Hannah Ritchie, they are actually worse for the environment than foods produced through conventional farming. Although organic farming uses less energy, it requires much more land and has greater potential for eutrophication and acidification of water bodies. And since agriculture uses a lot of land but not much energy, Ritchie argues that the disadvantages of organic farming outweigh its advantage in terms of energy use.
Why, then, do so many consumers who fancy themselves ‘environmentally conscious’ opt for organic foods? One possibility is they’re simply not aware of the research Ritchie cites. But could there be another, less flattering reason?
In a recent paper, Faruk Konuk and Tobias Otterbring examined whether consumers who prefer organic foods score higher on the ‘dark triad’ traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. They also examined whether such consumers might be motivated by virtue signalling, status consumption and praise from others – in addition to well-intentioned concern over the environment.
The researchers sent questionnaires to 400 consumers in Istanbul, Turkey, and obtained a high response rate of 84% (i.e., 337) usable surveys. Respondents were asked whether they were likely to buy organic food and whether they were willing to pay extra for it. They were also asked questions designed to measure the ‘dark triad’ traits, as well as questions designed to gauge their motivations for buying particular products.
Narcissism was measured with items such as ‘I tend to want others to pay attention to me’, Machiavellianism with items such as ‘I have used deceit or lied to get my way’ and psychopathy with items such as ‘I tend to lack remorse.’ As for consumers’ potential motivations, virtue signalling was measured with items such as ‘I often buy products that communicate the fact that I have certain characteristics’, status consumption with items such as ‘I would buy a product just because it has status’ and praise from others with items such as ‘It is important for me to get praise and admiration’.
What did Konuk and Otterbring find? In short, all three ‘dark triad’ traits and all three measures of ‘unflattering’ motivations were positively associated with the intention to purchase organic food and the willingness to pay extra for it. The correlations were surprisingly strong (on the order of r = .60). And they remained statistically significant when the researchers bunged all the variables into one great big multivariate model.
So consumers with high levels of ‘dark triad’ traits were more likely to have ‘unflattering’ motivations, and those with ‘unflattering’ motivations were, in turn, more inclined to purchase organic foods. Incidentally, this isn’t the first study to show that individuals with environmentalist inclinations have high levels of ‘dark triad’ traits. Which suggests the finding is a general one.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
With milk there is now a very good reason to buy organic to be free of Bovaer. With vegetables I am doubtful, but organic meat tastes better.
Organic also tends to be GMO free. I think most organic certification bodies have it as a condition.
What is that reason? Is there any research showing that, after Bovaer metabolises during the digestive process, the metabolic by-products pass into the milk in any toxic form,
Is there any research which can definively show that organic meat tastes better as determined by, for example, blind trials?,Surely this can only apply to raw meat as all cooking processes alter the taste.
Running your life according to scientific trials that are trying to prove a negative haven’t proved very reliable.
It reminds me of the Darwin Awards.
Especially not when the scientific trials are in the hands of people with an agenda, and any trials that don’t support the narrative are suppressed.
I am always surprised how many people are willing to concede “in the Covid pandemic scientists were clearly out of control and in the hand of lobbyists, but otherwise and in other areas scientists must surely still be completely honest and unbiased.”
The public trust in science is not something that can be expected but that has to be earned. The damage caused has to be repaired.
Yes I agree, being sure that there are not undesirable additives is a reason for buying organic.
However whether organic food tastes better is another thing. It may just be that producers of organic food tend to be more interested in quality of the product they produce.
We may all be buying direct from farmers soon, as a result of the stance of Labour following the WEF Reset.
I agree since I found out that Arla which supplies most of the supermarkets with milk from which their dairy products, milk, cheese, cream, Butter etc are produced, I stopped all purchases of those products from them, and buy locally from a small family owned farm. In terms of Fruit and Veg again I am lucky enough to live in the countryside and am able to purchase from a Farm, I don’t think its organic, but the Farmer is respectful of his land and his produce is always so much better than Supermarket and cheaper.
With regards to Meat, I am in 2 minds re Organic, I want to eat meat that has been raised in good conditions, with care undertaken by the Farmer, again where I live we have Pigs with barns outside where they happily grub around in pasture and the remnants of harvested fields, Cattle are out to grass in the Summer and if the weather is bad housed in sheds. I want chickens which are allowed proper access to the outside, and not weasel usage of free to roam outdoors, which means a scratty bit of space outside an essential battery style coup. However I think the withholding of anti biotics or drugs to an injured or sick animal in the name of organic is cruel, when the animal can be treated and then given time for its body to be free of the drug before slaughter and entry into the food chain.
I think respect for the land and the animal should be the primary focus, which our family farmers in the main do. Its a pity this Government has zero respect or understanding of their importance to society.
” … this Government has zero respect or understanding of their importance to society.”
What’s beyond belief is that, with the large resources available, the advisors in Whitehall, that it’s been true for decades.
I would challenge you to blind tasting.
I am prepared to “bet the house” you couldn’t tell the difference.
it may also be that organic farmers, knowing they are catering for a higher price segment, will produce varieties that are more tasty at the expense of lower yield, whereas mass production agriculture is primarily interested in producing quantity and will this cultivate varieties optimized to offer this. This can be true for both meats and vegetables. I have tasted carrots for example that were so different and more pleasing on the palate that I am pretty sure that this cannot be attributed to organic agriculture alone.
Besides the variety, it may also have to do with age and handling. Many people don’t realise that the fruit in their supermarket isn’t at all fresh. It may have spent two weeks in various trucks and warehouses. A carrot from an organic farm that you bought at the farmer’s market may have been pulled out of the soil the same morning. This can also make a world of difference.
That is a bit nonsensical and a clear example of so called scientific research where the outcome was decided before the study. Probably sponsored by Monsanto.
Toxicity from pesticides and herbicides, hormones and antibiotics in meat, animal welfare, nutrition and taste are all good reasons to buy organic foods, if/when affordable. You don’t need to be psychopathic environmentalist to come to that conclusion.
If there are less pesticides and herbicides in organic and less unknowns put in by institutions surely, assuming you can afford the organic differential, it is the safest option. Maybe we will find out in the future, after long term exposure to the non-organic stuff, that it had something in it that no one thought was going to be harmful!
Absolutely, and how practical that Monsanto can call their detractors mental psychos. Same trick they did over the Covid vaccines.
I just bought some Organic oats the other day because my favourite Quaker was unavailable. Even the Starlings don’t like it!!
It is well known, scientifically from testing, that non-organic oats are more likely to have pesticides, namely Roundup, that is used to reduce the deterioration of oats from moisture. Keep to the organic ones- let them soak overnight and they soften beautifully!
Scott’s are much better.
They are ok but don’t like them large like the jumbo oats. There is an Irish brand begins with an F that is quite good with a creamy texture.
Why? Empty-minded, low-grade thinkers, with the intellectual development of two-year olds, and too much money; too little sense.
Why do you ask?
Usually I buy organic products and there are a number of reasons.
To reduce my intake of pesticides, herbicides, and anti-biotics, because in general it tastes better, and I would rather buy my food from farmers that care for the soil and their animals using traditional methods.
Also, some studies suggest that organic food has higher nutrients, uses less synthetic fertilisers, supports more biodiversity, and prohibits GMOs.
I’m not saying it can’t be dome but it didn’t go so well in Sri Lanka.
That was about fertiliser
Introducing an overnight nationwide ban on all inorganic fertilisers and herbicides was bonkers particularly for a country that is so dependent on one main crop, so hardly surprising that the experiment failed.
Organic farming feeds the soil, not the plants/crops. This means the soil is not degraded by “artificial” fertilisers. Organic farming bans. the use of pesticides, fungicides, insecticides,herbicides.GMO bound crops etc. There is also plenty of unbiased research which shows organic is higher in nutrients.
We are the product of millions of years of evolution and as such it’s difficult to see how assailing the body with all that muck has no harmful effect.
Never forget that “Bigagri” – just like bigpharma has a huge vested interest in denigrating all things organic. So they use the same propaganderised playbook. But if you eat crap, you become ill – but never mind bigpharma will save you. The perfect symbiotic relationship…
Most on here would never have any mmRNA or any other vaccine yet some don’t seem to mind eating contaminated food. Weird.
So I eat organic for health reasons as I believe do most people. It also helps keep the soil healthy.
“Artificial” fertilisers contain nitrogen, organic fertilisers contain nitrogen.
Organic farming “feeds the soil, not the plants/crops… so what feeds the plants?
I blame the schools.
Nutrients/minerals/bacteria.virus in the soil and from sunlight/CO2.
alos crop rotation and such things that assure you don’t degrade the soil in the first place and thus don’t need fertilisers to fix it..
According to a farmer I chatted with, many things labelled organic are not.
I also heard that many things that are labelled vaccines are not. But this doesn’t make real vaccines bad. Many things that are labelled democracy are not. This doesn’t make democracy bad.
Probably the soil, as it used to do.
There are pros and cons.
I’ve found organic veg often to be smaller than non-organic. Sometimes smaller and ‘tastier but other times just less for my money.
Organic leeks are often smaller but they’re also usually a royal pain to clean all the grit out.
Organic milk from the supermarket is cheaper than the non-organic milk delivered to my doorstep, but it’s sold in plastic bottles rather than glass. Non-organic supermarket milk would be even cheaper.
I’ve read somewhere that we shouldn’t eat raw non-organic carrots without peeling/scraping them first. Can’t remember why but probably some preservative.
Horses for courses.
Not sure whether there is causation in that correlation, but the willingness to pay several mulitples more for “organic” food is definitely a pathology of our affluent society.
Hell yes. If I wasn’t affluent enough I wouldn’t touch the stuff.
The cure would be a couple of years in rural Africa or Asia where the food is definitely organic – grown in Human excrement – local (except for periodic crop failures when it comes from the UN – seasonal… well it’s actually the only crop so you have it every season… and only enough to prevent actual starvation.
So now being affluent is a bad thing? Let’s go back to poverty so that we can be more dependent on Monsanto?
The original article by Hannah Ritchie was published by Our World in Data, a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Oxford, and the Global Change Data Lab.
The Global Change Data Lab is supported by, inter alia, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Surprise, surprise!
What therefore isn’t surprising is that the original article attempts to paint organic farming in the worst possible light, using what seems to me to be usual combination of broad-brush generalisations and dodgy data.
In other words, it’s just more propaganda for the Malthusian project of “saving the planet”, while coincidentally enriching the entrenched elite.
“‘I would buy a product just because it has status’
Just get a BMW!
Organic is just a buzz word, all food is organic, how can it be inorganic?
They use the same nonsense with the word thermal, thermal socks? all heat and cold is thermal, it’s completely meaningless unless it has context
The only bad food is no food at all!
We can really only dislike what we do with it, how we grow it and how we manipulate it that’s where the trouble starts
I am buying organic dairy to avoid Bovaer if I can’t check the source of the dairy. I used to be sceptical of organic but I think intensive farming has gone too far, farmers have to farm according to supermarket pressure, not what works for their crops or land.
Something for the birds, that paper. I must admit that I’m a member of the Soil Association https://www.soilassociation.org/ , which would strongly disagree with it’s content.
Q: How can you tell that something is “organic”?
A: If it costs about twice as much as it should.
I buy organic food to avoid ingesting unnecessary chemicals and for no other reason, although some does taste much better.
It’s interesting how the term “conventional farming” is used here – surely conventional farming pre-dates Big Agri chemical pesticides and fertilisers but here we are with carrots produced using chemicals being sold as carrots and carrots produced using traditional farming methods are labelled organic. Surely it is more honest to label the latter as carrots and the former as non organic carrots but everything is inverted these days.
I would recommend the work of Stephanie Seneff on glyphosate (commonly known as Round Up). It is called “Toxic Legacy – how Glyphosate is destroying our health and the environment”.
“Conventional farming” – when people starved to death.
I don’t often buy organic but when I do the appeal is purely down to wanting to eat food with less contamination from chemicals. Was never about worrying about the environment.
I think this is utter nonsense! I try to buy mainly organic and certainly don’t have dark triad traits as listed above!
And, BTW, I remember in the past reading articles by eminent people (writing against such things as GMO crops) saying that if we went back to traditional organic (traditional was organic in my parents’ day!) farming there would be no problem feeding our vastly increased population. I don’t know if that is true but I do know that my parents’ fruit and veg, grown in their garden with no fertiliser or pesticides, indubitably tasted 100% better than anything (even organic) I eat now. You are very blessed if you can buy your food (whether organic or non-organic) from a known and trusted farmer – we live in urban south London and don’t have that option.
I did not buy organic food until the Big Pharma crime cartel started poisoning our dairy products via Bovaer feed additives given to cattle. Now I do.
We get an organic veg box from a local farm. We enjoy the variety of produce (an element of surprise as we don’t know quite what we’ll get). It’s probably healthier with fewer chemicals, and a good proportion of our weekly shop is not then from a supermarket. If that makes us narcissistic, words fail me. We’re buying a lot more from farms directly in addition, and yes, organic where possible. Also using local shops to keep the supermarket shop to a minimum. Apart from this post, we don’t especially advertise this, but would encourage people to buy from farmers who are (as we know) under attack. (This approach also has the knock on effect of getting us to cook from scratch, and be creative with meals).
Copy and paste from a previous poster but “imagine my surprise” about the origins of this clearly B.S article. Thought it might have been from Ian (I support the Ukro-Nazis and the deep state) Rons
The original article by Hannah Ritchie was published by Our World in Data, a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Oxford, and the Global Change Data Lab.
The Global Change Data Lab is supported by, inter alia, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Surprise, surprise!
What therefore isn’t surprising is that the original article attempts to paint organic farming in the worst possible light, using what seems to me to be usual combination of broad-brush generalisations and dodgy data.
In other words, it’s just more propaganda for the Malthusian project of “saving the planet”, while coincidentally enriching the entrenched elite.
Sorry, not impressed with psychologising people’s views – “narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy”. It’s straight from the playbook of the shutdown debate brigade. Better to deal with the arguments and the facts IMO.
I’m surprised those with ‘dark triad’ traits would admit to them since such types are usually pretty good at masking. Otherwise, I think, with all that is coming out about additives in so many products, people who can afford it might choose to eat organically, even if they’re not from the ‘dark side’.
one comment mentioned the gates funding of the article , not surprised !
i’ve been buying all organic for 15 years now .
,most meat, all eggs and raw milk i buy direct from wonderful organic farmers ever since watched food inc and read the omnivores dilemma.
and i have to say it does taste so much better especially the chicken, could not believe the difference !
and my digestion and stomach problems finally went away, couldn’t eat dairy with out stomach problems now is fine.it means cooking at home and not buying take out or eating out much [ all the GMOS ]so saves money .
plus the animals are so well cared for.not factory farm huge sheds wiht 1000s chickens squeezed in who dont go outside but real old fashioned farms. the chickens out side eating bugs or in movable small ‘ houses ‘ the pigs out in the woods , cows and sheep out in the fields .
i definitely recommend organic if you can!
Organic farming has a much higher carbon footprint than conventional. While I am sure that eating food that has not been treated with chemicals is a good idea, organic farming is low input which means low output. It cannot provide enough food to feed the planet. In addition, it has to be consumed while fresh (i.e. within 24 hours or so) because it has no shelf life.
my organic food lasts very long i must say , the raw milk freezes well and even fresh lasts 2 weeks !
i do not know enough to comment about lower output however i did read that conventional uses petroleum based fertilizer plus chemicals and eventually depletes the soil.
and the organic farms have animals and use the manure as the readily available fertilizer right there !
i think the veggies actually lasts longer than the conventional i used to buy because some of the ones i buy are from local farmers so no travel time .
and the organic fruit i buy though most not local also stays fresh for a long time
anyway all farmers are to be admired i think .