The consumption of organic food is certainly rising, thanks to more information. But so ultra-processed industrial food is (carbonated drinks, packaged sweet and savoury snacks, many ready meals, reconstituted meat products, industrial ice cream…).
“Ultra-transformed foods, if consumed in excess, not only have effects on health, but also on the food system and the supply chains from the earth to the table” as Giovanni Ballarini says in an article on Georgofili.
Ballarini also states “Just as cola-based drinks with their brands have partly replaced beer and wine, the fried potato has been replaced by the patented Pringles salty snack and in the near future the steak may be replaced by the already patented brands of fake meats and industrial foods produced from cultivated animal cells“.
The increase in the consumption of so-called junk food, which is growing rapidly among young people and the low-income population, is a problem, due to the way these ultra-transformed foods are constructed with addictives.
Let us come to the numbers, to quantitative representations, which tell the truth about complex subjects such as food in general better than qualitative ones.
At present, almost 1,500 additives are allowed in the European Union for various reasons!
These range from colourings, preservatives, antioxidants, acidity and flavour regulators to stabilisers, etc.
I repeat, there are 1,500 (one thousand five hundred!) chemical substances of the most varied nature that can be used to literally build food, and above all ultra-transformed industrial food.
And in this lot are not included the endless chemical additives that are used in intensive agriculture and intensive animal breeding.
We mention one for all, because of its topicality: glyphosate, a herbicide still widely used in Europe and certainly carcinogenic!
In America, Bayer is tackling 125,000 causes worth more than $10 billion for the serious health damage caused by glyphosate, sold under the trade name Roundup by Monsanto, which was bought by Bayer in 2018.
And now we come to the organic world.
How many additives can be used in organic food production?
The bill is soon done: about 84!
David (the organic with 84 additives) versus Goliath (the conventional and ultra-processed food with 1,500 additives).
The real loser, however, is the consumer who eats conventional and especially ultra-processed food massively!
Remember these numbers when you read about the futility of organic food, the fact that there are no differences with conventional food, etc.
These are certainly articles which, although written by renowned experts, are clearly biased!
