Comparasion and contrast paper on conventional and organic food products

Essay by laixu4High School, 11th gradeA+, March 2003

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While conventional food products are still dominating American market, the phrase "healthy eating" is gradually gaining popularity. To supplement this new trendy belief, a wave of organic products is sweeping across this nation's grocery stores. But do people really realize the differences between conventional and organic products as they mound their shopping carts? Do they know that the main differences between the two categories of foods actually lie in their processing procedures, advertising strategies, and product ingredients?

When people look at an organic product, the first thing they are most likely to notice is its cost. Which, under normal circumstances, is remarkably higher than average products. Since people have the misconception that the word "organic" on food labels means "all natural," they accepted this phenomenon as a necessary price to pay for a healthy life, but it merely indicates that the product is minimally processed and is preservative free. The true reason behind the intimidating price of organic product is because organic production prohibits the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides as well as genetic manipulation of plants.

These standards require greater labor input from organic farmers to provide a purer product, and at the same time help to protect our environment.

People expect a "fair price" for conventional foods, because they are well informed of its manufacturing process. Modern machinery allows factories to undergo mass-production, thus little manual labor is required. This not only leads to increments in the yield, but also lowers the overall cost of production. Though the reasonable price of conventional products is beneficial to one's budget, chemical preservatives are used during the manufacturing process. Conventional cropping practices may also include a combination fungicide/insecticide treatment to protect the seed from soil diseases and insects, which poses potential harm to our health and environment.

Since the prices...