I do eat some organic food, in the hopes that it will taste better, but there’s also some conventional food (including highly processes stuff) that I like and eat.
Here’a an idea that I’ve been thinking about for a while, any thoughts? Epistemic status is uncertain:
Producers are using the buzz-word “organic” as a form of market segmentation for price discrimination. Since organic food is more expensive and marketed at richer consumers, it is not surprising that producers make an extra effort to improve the quality, even if this quality improvement has nothing to do with the agricultural practices. Consumers are rightly noticing that food marketed as organic tastes better, and are demanding more of it. This leads to a vicious cycle that reduces the efficiency of agriculture, which obviously has implications for global warming, deforestation etc. Everyone are following their incentives correctly, but we end up in an inferior equilibrium because of a self-fulfilling prophecy which forces everyone to use the signal “organic” when they mean “good quality”.
Since organic food is more expensive and marketed at richer consumers, it is not surprising that producers make an extra effort to improve the quality
Um. Basically, producing organic food forces extra expenses upon you, so the organic food has higher costs. I am not convinced about “higher quality”.
Consumers are rightly noticing that food marketed as organic tastes better
No, it doesn’t.
I even ran a blind test on eggs—bought some supermarket-brand generic eggs, and bought some organic free-range extra-special extra-expensive eggs and did a blind test cooking the eggs a couple of different ways. I couldn’t tell the difference.
For fruits and veggies, there are a lot of factor which influence their quality and none of them have anything to do with being “organic” or not.
I agree that there are a lot of factors which influence the quality of fruit and veggies, and that they are not causally related to whether the vegetables are organic. However, I am convinced that there is some correlation. For example, I expect that it would be difficult to sell unripe mass produced tomatoes as organic.
One objective thing I have noticed is the quality of milk. I have an Aeroccino-machine for frothing milk. When I use milk from Whole Foods (an expensive all-organic food store), it consistently creates a great foam, whereas if I use non-organic milk from a normal supermarket, it usually completely fails. It would be great if someone else who owns an Aeroccino machine could try to replicate this claim at home..
I expect that there is a simple explanation that has nothing to do with pesticides, for example that Whole Foods has a better logistics system that keeps the milk properly refrigerated at all times. However, my point is only that many customers will note that the organic milk from Wholefoods foams, whereas the non-organic doesn’t.
I’ve read about other blind tests which found that people can’t tell the difference between fancy eggs and ordinary ones. I have felt a little off after eating very cheap eggs for several days in a row.
I’ve seen consensus that free-range beef tastes better.
While I said something nice about the veggies to a farmer at the farmer’s market, he said that the big difference was freshness rather than better varieties or growing conditions.
I’ve seen consensus that free-range beef tastes better.
Well, the standard local supermarket beef and beef imported from Australia taste clearly different, though “better” is a matter of preferences. There are probably at least three differences between them: (1) Breed; (2) Feed (mostly or solely grass-fed vs. mostly or solely corn-fed); (3) Physical exercise (real free-range vs. limited free-range vs. factory farming).
Here’a an idea that I’ve been thinking about for a while, any thoughts? Epistemic status is uncertain:
Producers are using the buzz-word “organic” as a form of market segmentation for price discrimination. Since organic food is more expensive and marketed at richer consumers, it is not surprising that producers make an extra effort to improve the quality, even if this quality improvement has nothing to do with the agricultural practices. Consumers are rightly noticing that food marketed as organic tastes better, and are demanding more of it. This leads to a vicious cycle that reduces the efficiency of agriculture, which obviously has implications for global warming, deforestation etc. Everyone are following their incentives correctly, but we end up in an inferior equilibrium because of a self-fulfilling prophecy which forces everyone to use the signal “organic” when they mean “good quality”.
Um. Basically, producing organic food forces extra expenses upon you, so the organic food has higher costs. I am not convinced about “higher quality”.
No, it doesn’t.
I even ran a blind test on eggs—bought some supermarket-brand generic eggs, and bought some organic free-range extra-special extra-expensive eggs and did a blind test cooking the eggs a couple of different ways. I couldn’t tell the difference.
For fruits and veggies, there are a lot of factor which influence their quality and none of them have anything to do with being “organic” or not.
I agree that there are a lot of factors which influence the quality of fruit and veggies, and that they are not causally related to whether the vegetables are organic. However, I am convinced that there is some correlation. For example, I expect that it would be difficult to sell unripe mass produced tomatoes as organic.
One objective thing I have noticed is the quality of milk. I have an Aeroccino-machine for frothing milk. When I use milk from Whole Foods (an expensive all-organic food store), it consistently creates a great foam, whereas if I use non-organic milk from a normal supermarket, it usually completely fails. It would be great if someone else who owns an Aeroccino machine could try to replicate this claim at home..
I expect that there is a simple explanation that has nothing to do with pesticides, for example that Whole Foods has a better logistics system that keeps the milk properly refrigerated at all times. However, my point is only that many customers will note that the organic milk from Wholefoods foams, whereas the non-organic doesn’t.
I’ve read about other blind tests which found that people can’t tell the difference between fancy eggs and ordinary ones. I have felt a little off after eating very cheap eggs for several days in a row.
I’ve seen consensus that free-range beef tastes better.
While I said something nice about the veggies to a farmer at the farmer’s market, he said that the big difference was freshness rather than better varieties or growing conditions.
Well, the standard local supermarket beef and beef imported from Australia taste clearly different, though “better” is a matter of preferences. There are probably at least three differences between them: (1) Breed; (2) Feed (mostly or solely grass-fed vs. mostly or solely corn-fed); (3) Physical exercise (real free-range vs. limited free-range vs. factory farming).