[quickben]

There is something wrong with the food industry. When I was growing up, they taught us that we eat veggies because when they are fully mature, all the nutrients are there and good for us.

Somehow, they found out how to make them look ready but still not ripe. And now they found out how to screw the taste to taste better.

So they will look and taste good, but the nutritive value will be questionable.

Waste of research effort.

Edit: to the people modding this down: you realize that research will hit the poorest hardest? They can't buy organic tomatoes, they think what they paid for is good nutritive food, except it isn't.

[bluGill]

You seem to be mistaking organic for ripe nutritious food. Organic just limits some specific chemicals. That is it. You can replaces those limited chemicals with other "natural" chemicals which may be (and often are) much more harmful.

Organic does not save the earth. Sometimes is does, but other times it is more harmful than the conventional practice.

Organic is not more nutritious. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is less (because the farmer cannot replace the nutrients last year's crop took out)

Organic is not fresher or better tasting. Sometimes it is, but that is not a reflection on organic, it is a reflection on conventional farmers not finding it worthwhile to sell fresher.

[kentosi]

Can you back the claim up that natural chemicals are being used and are harmful?

I thought the whole point of organic is that there are no pesticides being used in the first place.

[SteveNuts]

Organic foods can still use "chemicals", you just can't use synthetically created additives (ferts, pesticides, etc.)

AFAIK they could spray the crops with arsenic and it could still be "organic".

[chc]

Look at the standards for organic foods. They're quite specific in forbidding synthetic pesticides, and even that has exceptions. Naturally derived pesticides, like pyrethrin, are allowed.

[bluGill]

Non-organic: roundup (from http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/dienochlor-gly...) The toxicity of the technical product (glyphosate) and the formulated product (Roundup) is nearly the same. The acute oral LD50 in the rat is 5,600 mg/kg [Rat]

Organic: vinegar (http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9922769) (LD50): 3310 mg/kg [Rat]

Of course there are hundreds of different chemicals to look at, and LD50 is not the only measure. It is enough to back up my claim though.

[chc]

Have you actually looked at solid numbers and seen alarming and easily fixable losses in nutrition, or are you trying to shame this guy based on assumptions?

[burkaman]

Why do you think this variety will be less nutritious than "organic" tomatoes?

[quickben]

Because they collect them green and then ship them with ethylene so they just look 'red' ?

Ethylene: The Ripening Hormone

http://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/pages/PC2000F

[vonmoltke]

Ethylene ripens the tomatoes, which is far more than making them "look red". That link does not address whether there is a difference between the end product of that accelerated ripening and a normal ripening.

[searine]

Easy to say on a full stomach.

[quickben]

That is not the point. The stomach will stay empty, but money will be spent. This is not gmo research, this is screwing the people that can't buy organic food.

[searine]

The problem with food policy is that you simply can't get rid of cheap food. If you get rid of cheap food, even unhealthy cheap food, people starve.

So the solution isn't to demonize cheap food. It is to make cheap food better. Adding back the vitamins and nutrients which also impart flavor while keeping the caloric content high is one great way of doing that.

Furthermore, in a modern economy with diverse choice, nutrient deficiency is not a concern. Cheap food alone can more than provide the essential vitamins and nutrients. What is more important is delivery raw caloric content, which cheap food excels at.

Organic is fresh, luxury food built on a foundation of cheap staples. If you erode the pillars that hold up your palace, it will all come crashing down.