[Eco] Organic milk and meat worse for the environment?

[Carrie Berman]

Re:  Genetic food modification and organic food purchases:

I think for many the issue of buying organic has more facets than just
sustainability.  After all, our population on earth is growing large enough
that just about every resource is incompatable with sustaining our needs.
Organic food growth is best for healthy population levels - we just don't
have it.  Instead of finding ways to continue to support an unsustainable
population, (ie: through genetically modifying our food) perhaps we should
focus on bringing our population back to levels that can be sustained by
normal food supply, water supply, resource consumption, waste production,
etc. levels.  I don't buy organic milk and eggs because of sustainability, I
buy them because of issues of compassion for the lives of the animals.
Farms that supply organic milk are less likely to factory-farm their cows.
The same applies to eggs from free range chickens.  Helping contribute to a
world that respects life is as important as (and indeed is part of)
contributing to a world that is sustainable.  After all, sustainability
involves being able to live more effectively in congruence with the natural
world.   Wanting to live in congruence with the natural world requires some
respect for the natural world.

There are many good reasons to be against genetically modifying food on
principle.  Nature operates on a complex balance between many species.
Genetically modifying plants (or animals) can have severe consequences that
cause a chain reaction of devastation to an entire ecosystems.  For example,
because farmers genetically modified corn in many parts of the U.S., a
species that has been thriving for millenia (the Monarch Butterfly) is now a
dying breed.
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