For quite a while I’ve wondered why most baby food sold in England seems to be organic, and why nobody seems to complain about it.
Are parents simply more conscious of what they expose their children to when they’re infants (vs. when they’re older)? Are there any known harms associated with feeding very young children produce that’s been heavily exposed to agrochemicals? Have vested interests just found a way of exploiting people who know no better?
In any case, this is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. I’m a fan of organic food — but only because I found myself working at a company building software for farmers.[1] I’ve lived in London my whole life and, up until the point of actually visiting an arable farm near Cambridge, had never really considered where the food I ate came from; how it actually ended up on the supermarket shelf.
I think most people are aware, at least vaguely, of the idea that organic produce is “better” or “healthier” for us than non-organic produce, but whenever I talk about it with people the number one thing I hear is “it’s so expensive” or “it costs too much”. It does cost more, that’s true, but this premium is the price we pay to consume food that hasn’t been lathered in chemicals designed to kill, and, to return to my initial question, doesn’t seem to be an issue in every context.
It’s something I think about often. There is some evidence of the impact our gut microbiome has on mental health (and ill-health). If, as it turns out, there is a clear connection between these two things, it makes understanding why people are prepared to spend more money on organic food under some circumstances, but not others, a really important line of enquiry in the context of encouraging more people to make healthier choices.