Organic food: why?

Today, many governments are promoting organic or natural farming methods that
avoid use of pesticides and other artificial products. The aim is to show that they
care about the environment and about people's health. But is this the right
approach?

A. Europe is now the biggest market for organic food in the world, expanding by
25 percent a year over the past 10 years. So what is the attraction of organic food
for some people? The really important thing is that organic sounds more ‘natural’. Eating organic is a way of
defining oneself as natural, good, caring, different from the junk-food-scoffing masses. As one journalist puts it: It
feels closer to the source, the beginning, the start of things.' The real desire /dɪˈzaɪə(r)/ is to be somehow close
to the soil, to Mother Nature.

B. Unlike conventional /kənˈvenʃənl/ farming, the organic approach /əˈprəʊtʃ/ means farming with natural,
rather than man-made, fertilisers and pesticides. Techniques such as crop rotation improve soil quality and help
organic farmers compensate /ˈkɒmpenseɪt/ for the absence of man-made chemicals. As a method of food
production, organic is, however, inefficient in its use of labour /ˈleɪbə(r)/ and land; there are severe /sɪ
ˈvɪə(r)/ limits to how much food can be produced. Also, the environmental benefits of not using artificial fertiliser
are tiny compared with the amount of carbon dioxide emitted /iˈmɪt/ by transporting food (a great deal of
Britain’s organic produce is shipped in from other countries and transported from shop to home by car).

C. Organic farming is often claimed /kleɪm/ to be safer than conventional farming - for the environment and for
consumers. Yet studies into organic farming worldwide continue to reject /rɪˈdʒekt/ this claim. An extensive /ɪk
ˈstensɪv/ review by the UK Food Standards Agency found that there was no statistically /stəˈtɪstɪkli/ significant
/sɪɡˈnɪfɪkənt/ difference between organic and conventional crops. Even where results indicated /ˈɪndɪkeɪt/
there was evidence /ˈevɪdəns/ of a difference, the reviewers found no sign that these differences would have any
noticeable effect on health.

D. The simplistic /sɪmˈplɪstɪk/ claim that organic food is more nutritious than conventional food was always likely
to be misleading /ˌmɪsˈliːdɪŋ/. Food is a natural product, and the health value of different foods will vary for a
number of reasons, including freshness, the way the food is cooked, the type of soil it is grown in, the amount of
sunlight and rain crops have received, and so on. Likewise /ˈlaɪkwaɪz/, the flavour /ˈfleɪvə(r)/ of a carrot has less
to do with whether it was fertilised with manure or something out of a plastic sack than with the variety of carrot
and how long ago it was dug up /dʌɡ/. The differences created by these things are likely to be greater than any
differences brought about by using an organic or nonorganic system of production. Indeed /ɪnˈdiːd/, even some
‘organic’ farms are quite different from one another.

E. The notion that organic food is safer than ‘normal’ food is also contradicted /ˌkɒntrəˈdɪkt/ by the fact that
many of our most common foods are full of natural toxins. Parsnips /ˈpɑːsnɪp/ cause blisters /ˈblɪstə(r)/ on the
skin of agricultural workers. Toasting bread creates carcinogens /kɑːˈsɪnədʒən/. As one research expert says:
‘People think that the more natural something is, the better it is for them. That is simply not the case. In fact, it is
the opposite that is true: the closer a plant is to its natural state, the more likely it is that it will poison you.
Naturally, many plants do not want to be eaten, so we have spent 10,000 years developing agriculture and breeding
out /briːd/ harmful traits /treɪt/ from crops.'

F. Yet educated Europeans are more scared of eating traces /treɪs/ of a few, strictly /ˈstrɪktli/ regulated
/ˈreɡjuleɪt/, man-made chemicals than they are of eating the ones that nature created directly. Surrounded by
plentiful food, it’s not nature they worry about, but technology. Our obsessions /əbˈseʃn/ with the ethics /ˈeθɪk/
and safety of what we eat - concerns /kənˈsɜːn/ about antibiotics /ˌæntibaɪˈɒtɪk/ in animals, additives in food,
GM crops and so on - are symptomatic /ˌsɪmptəˈmætɪk/ of a highly technological society that has little faith in its
ability to use this technology wisely /ˈwaɪzli/. In this context, the less something is touched by the human hand,
the healthier people assume /əˈsjuːm/ it must be.
G. Ultimately, the organic farming movement is an expensive luxury for shoppers in well-manicured Europe. For
developing parts of the world, it is irrelevant /ɪˈreləvənt/. To European environmentalists, the fact that organic
methods require more labour and land than conventional ones to get the same yields /jiːld/ is a good thing; to a
farmer in rural Africa, it is a disaster. Here, land tends to be so starved /stɑːv/ and crop yields so low that there
simply is not enough organic matter to put back into the soil. Perhaps the focus should be on helping these
countries to gain access to the most advanced farming techniques, rather than going back to basics.

Questions 1-7
The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

List of Headings

i Research into whether organic food is better for us

1. Paragraph A ____viii____
ii Adding up the cost of organic food
2. Paragraph B ____v____
iii The factors that can affect food quality
3. Paragraph C ___i_____
iv The rich and poor see things differently
4. Paragraph D ___iii_____
v A description of organic farming
5. Paragraph E ____ix____
vi Testing the taste of organic food
6. Paragraph F ____vii____
vii Fear of science has created the organic trend
7. Paragraph G ____ii____
viii The main reason for the popularity of organic food
ix The need to remove hidden dangers from food

Questions 8-9
Which TWO of the following points does the writer mention in connection with organic farming?
A. the occasional use of pesticides
B. using the same field for different crops
C. testing soil quality
D. reducing the number of farm workers
E. the production of greenhouse gases

Questions 10-11
According to the writer, which TWO factors affect the nutritional content of food?
A. who prepares the food
B. the weather conditions during growth
C. where the food has been stored
D. when the plants were removed from the earth
E. the type of farm the food was grown on

Questions 12-13
Which TWO negative aspects of organic farming does the writer mention?
A. Consumers complain about the extra cost.
B. Organic food may make people ill.
C. Farm workers have to be specially trained.
D. It requires too much technological expertise.
E. It is not possible in some countries.