Organic Food †Does It Really Makes a Difference? Essay

   There are increasing debates about whether the organic food really makes a difference. Organic food has been commonly seen as better taste, healthy, safety and environment friendly, but is it true? This paper hopes to find out the exact conclusion of that debate, as well as consumers’ perspective of organic food, and its influence on hospitality industry. 1. Introduction of Organic Food 1. 1 Definition of Organic Food Organic food has a strict regulation that determines what kind of food can be labeled ‘organic’. According to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, â€Å"Organic food is the product of an agricultural farming system that places a strong emphasis on environmental protection and animal welfare. † (Peter, 2006; Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Organic Food, 2004) As well as the organic produce export committee defined it as â€Å"organic production emphasizes the use of renewable resources, conservation of energy and resources, and preservation of the environment, without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides† (Peter, 2006; Organic Produce Export Committee, 2002). Based on the quotes, we know that the organic food has many benefits that conventional food does not have, such as environment friendly, healthy, no hidden danger and so forth. 1. 2 Consumer’s Awareness of Healthy Eating â€Å"Foodborne disease caused by microbiological hazards is a large and growing public health problem in Europe and worldwide. † (Deborah, Christopher, Patricia, 2003, p. 434). Thanks to the technology, by watching the press coverage from TV and the Internet, worldwide public awareness of food quality and nutrition has been improving dramatically. A research conducted by Annelies states that â€Å"food has become less safe, less tasty, a bit more expensive and certainly less healthy. † (Annelies, Xavier, Jacques, 2002 p. 615). As a result, nowadays the organic food is getting more and more popular around the world. Moreover, according to Aikaterini M (2002, p. 346) â€Å"better taste, being like home-grown, being free from BSE, genetic modification and food additives are motivations for buying organic food†. It is said that the demand of organic food is growing gradually, and now people are more willing to buy organic food rather than conventional food. 2. Debate of Difference between Organic Food and Conventional Food Now because the people concern over their healthy issue and its link with food has been intensified recently, and likely to become more so, it drives great many articles getting more concentration on writing about healthy eating style; among these articles, plenty of debates have been arisen for arguing whether the organic food is better than the conventional food or not. 2. 1 Standpoint of Organic Food Is Better Than Conventional Food Generally, the organic food is more expensive than the conventional food, but consumers still willing to pay a premium for organically grown products. â€Å"According to the results of the organic food consumer survey, respondents who claim to be an organic food consumer rank â€Å"healthiness† first, â€Å"taste† second and â€Å"environmentally friendly† third. † (Annelies, et al, 2002, p. 614) 2. 1. 1 Healthiness and Food Safety. Firstly, based on organic food definition, it clearly informs its customers that it does not use of any chemo-synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Regarding conventional food, we cannot say all of conventional food may contain harmful substance due to pesticide residues remain on food, but what can be sure is the conventional food indeed has risk that threat to health. (Faidon, Fotini, & Antonis 2006) The threat probably is less effect for adult, but still may cause danger to fragile parties, such as babies and old people. Actually, some scientists’ report â€Å"certain pesticide in conventional food could, over many years, raise the risk of cancer and other disease in humans. † (Faidon, et al, 2006, p. 25) The report also states that the leafy vegetables and fruits with thin skin, lettuce and strawberry for example, are contained much more chemical residues than other types of food. Thus, these high-risk foods should always eat organically farmed, or on the season. 2. 1. 2 Taste of Organic Food. Secondly, another debate point that does the organic food taste better than other types of food, the article, written by Laurence and Stacey (2002), said the claim that all organic food taste better than conventional food is not a valid one. Based on his research, the organic orange juice does prove it has a better taste, but his research also shows that there is no difference in taste by compares the organic milk and conventional milk. It is fair to say not all of organic foods taste better than conventional foods, but after all some organic foods are really more delicious than other foods. On the other hand, we should not ignore the physiological effect. Many reports and articles admit that there is a worldwide belief that consumers think the organic food does taste better. (Anne, Albert and Clive, 1995; Fotopoulos and Krystalli, 2002; Justin and Jyoti, 2012) It is a great deal of emotional conviction. As a result, even few organic foods do taste nothing special, the general uninformed consumers still taste organic food ‘better’ because of bias of perspective. 2. 1. 3 Environment Friendly Thirdly, according to exist research, the organic agriculture is perceived as friendly for environment and animal welfare. (Bord 2000; Annelies et al, 2002; Anne et al, 1995; Koen, Joris, & Guido, 2009) According to the report by Bord (2000), the organic farming has many advantages that the conventional farming does have, such as protecting the long term fertility of soils, encouraging soil biological activity, conservation of wildlife and natural habitats and so forth. Additionally, as the author mentioned above, consumers increasingly concern to environment issues, which is going to become a trend of green movement in hospitality industry. (Zhang and Jing, 2011) 2. 2 Viewpoint of No Difference between Organic Food and Conventional Food Some research point out the main reasons prevent consumers to buy organic food are lack of availability, expensive, and satisfaction with conventional food. (Emma and Tony, 2005; Aikaterini, 2002) Another research conducted by Faidon, et al (2006), states that organic food probably just buying for peace of mind, because they believe organic food makes no noticeable differences than conventional food. To be more specifically, as the author mentioned above, the food safety is ranked as the first reason consumers buying organic food; but in fact the research shows that chemical residue remained level is limited and acceptable in the majority of conventional food. (Faidon, et al, 2006) Even though some types of conventional products, such as strawberry, are contained much more chemical residues than other, but many consumers can be satisfied by choosing other substitutable conventional product to replace the unsafe food. On the other hand, the acceptable amount of chemical residues in conventional food may has minimum effect on normal people’s health; at least for now it is still the subject of great scientific controversy. (Faidon, et al, 2006) Additionally, because the lack of availability of organic food, the consumers sometimes do not have any options but choose conventional food; therefore it may does not have a noticeable advantage that the organic food bring, unless consumers eating organic food only for a long time. 3. Consumers’ Perspective of Differences between Organic food, Conventional Food and Genetically Modified (GM) Food, and Their Impact on Hospitality Industry Despite lots of scientists argue what they believe or doubt whether the organic food really worth the money or not, and no matter how many researched data they used to support their view, uninformed consumers always are the major group who judge the organic food based on their own knowledge and perspective. The common sense tells them the nature products are always the safest for human being. Moreover, unlike the conventional food and GM food, the organic food provides a clean label and easily understood ingredient list. In contrast, the first image of consumer’s perspective of conventional food is that it uses of chemo-synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Although the conventional food has many advantages that the organic food does not have, such as cheap, big, always widely available, and less limited product range, but these advantages are all highly relied on harmful substance (small amount). On the other hand, the GM food also does not give consumers any better confidence in food safety and quality. In fact, based on research, the majority of consumers have negative attitude towards GM food because they do not have exactly knowledge to know how GM food being produced. (Annelies, & Jacques, 2003) Hence, in relation to consumers’ perspective, organic food really makes difference, by reason of people can assure there is no risk in foods, especially ensure the food safety for fragile party such as babies, pregnant women, older people and so on. Nowadays, not only the increasing consumers choose organic product, but also the restaurants and hotels have realized that the label of ‘organic’ is bring opportunities to them. Based on the research by Zhang and Jing (2011), more and more hoteliers start to bring organic food on their menu, in order to serve a fine quality food and attract customers. A research of consumer behavior and purchase intention for organic food indicates that â€Å"health, availability and education from demographic factors positively influence the consumer’s attitude towards buying organic food; and the overall satisfaction of consumers for organic food is more than inorganic food. â€Å" (Justin and Joyti, 2012, p.419) Therefore the marketer involved in sale of organic food, hotels for example, must set and implement a proper strategy to take this chance to maximize the market share. 4. Conclusion and Recommendation Research looked into any differences between organic food and conventional food, in order to find out the substantiations of whether the organic food is better or not. By review many relevant literatures, the author finds out that organic food does make differences in relation to the human healthy, food safety and environment friendly. Regarding to the taste of organic food, the author finds out not all of organic food taste better than conventional food, but some of the organic products indeed have a different flavor. However, in relation to the matter of the whether the organic food has more nutrition than conventional food or not, the evidence for that is scare and questionable. Thus, despite of nutrition factor, the author conclude that organic food really makes differences, and is indeed superior. Even though the organic food is better than conventional food, the author still recommends that consumers should eat both organic food and conventional food, by considering the high price of organic food and not always available. While, regarding to vegetables and fruits which contain great amount of chemical residues, such as the strawberry, the author suggest consumers to buy organic if possible, otherwise eat those foods as less as possible. Finally, the hoteliers should do some market research to find out the opportunities that organic food can bring in, and implement a proper strategy to maximize the market share and get benefit from it. Reference Peter M. (2006), Organic food – Nature knows best. Shannon College of Hotel Management Organic Produce Export Committee (2002), National Standard for Organic and Bio-Dynamic Produce, Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, Canberra. Food Safety Authority of Ireland. (2004), Organic Food. Deborah A. C. , Christopher J. G., Patricia P. (2003). â€Å"An investigation of the factors underlying consumers’ implementation of specific food safety practices† British Food Journal Vol. 105 (7), 434 – 453 Faidon M. , Fotini A. , Antonis Z. 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