Vaccines cause autism are more antiscience than organic foods

[Heraclitus]

I also just dislike the demographic which tends to espouse this.

[Guynemer]

Your third poll choice appears to be in some crazy moonspeak.

The thread title is accurate; however, one could argue that the organic food movement may cause more harm than the anti-vaccine movement.

[Aeson]

I don't think the organic food movement causes harm. (If more than say, half of the world's production was organic, without increasing organic yields... then it would, but that's a long ways away.) It even does some good by making farming more profitable*, and helps push for development of alternative farming methods, which can then be adopted by non-organic farmers if/when those developments are more efficient.

I don't think we can say the same for anti-vaccine movements. There's no positives there as far as I can tell. (Other than perhaps stupid people being more likely to get sick and die? But that's a bit harsh.)

*Overall. And certainly there is economic incentive for organic farmers. Though even non-organic farmers can benefit from reduced competition due to lower yields of organic farms. Then of course there are farmers which do both, like some of my Dad's friends in Utah, who sell organic cherries alongside non-organic cherries, thus benefiting from having 2 markets for their produce and not having to let so much of their produce go to waste in years where production is more than quota. (This is the problem with the anti-organic arguments... we're still paying for farmland not to be used, burning production, and/or dictating that produce rot in the field to increase prices.)

[loinburger]

I'm pretty sure that Heraclitus is drunk. Alternatively, he's lost his grasp of the english language.

[Kuciwalker]

invalid poll

I think the organic/local food movement is more widespread and economically damaging than the anti-vaccine movement, but if the anti-vaccine movement reached the same prominence it would be far more troublesome.

[giblets]

organic food, being far more widespread, is doing a lot more to spread unscientific beliefs

if we wanted to sustain ourselves on organic food, we'd have to eliminate a couple billion people. organic food is like 40 times worse than Hitler

[Kuciwalker]

gribbler

[Aeson]

I should also add to the list of reasons... that yields in many parts of the world are still nowhere that attainable by organic methods, and that in those cases organic methods (though probably not certification) are often more feasible for local populations. The additional costs for organic are often because of increased labor, and labor is much less expensive in those countries. Mulches and organic fertilizers are often available for free (and helps improve air quality if used as it's just burned otherwise), whereas capital to purchase fertilizers and pesticides is harder to come by, if said fertilizers and pesticides are even available in local markets.

[Heraclitus]

I'm pretty sure that Heraclitus is drunk. Alternatively, he's lost his grasp of the english language.

This was true on both counts.

[Imran Siddiqui]

loinburger validated