Aidan Anderson

EN 102

Summary/Response Essay

16 February 2021

Is Buying Organic Worth The Money?

“Eat organic!” “It’s worth the money!” “You will feel so much better!” With all of these

sayings are from organic believers, it would be difficult to see any argument. While organic

consumers fight for what they believe in, Steven Shapin, an American historian and sociologist

wrote his essay “What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic?” Shapin analyzes Earthbound

Farms and how the conversation of “organic” products is to a greater degree a beneficial matter

than what is most important: the wellbeing of a person. He claims natural buyers have more to

consider when purchasing natural than just whether the food was treated with pesticides or

herbicides; he asserts that natural purchasers think they are purchasing more supplements with

the natural name, that they cannot deliver their own natural food in light of the time and season,

that they cannot take care of the world we have today as a result of their degree of creation.

In his essay, Shapin considers the connection between natural purchasers and the items

they purchase. Shapin primarily claims in his essay “What Are You Buying When You Buy

Organic?” that when purchasing organic, there is a whole other world to consider than if the food

was treated with pesticides or herbicides; customers should ponder the "natural" name and what

natural really implies. Throughout his essay, Shapin features Earthbound, a natural arugula

ranch, and its prosperity as a maker. Shapin highlights Michael Pollan, author of many food

books, who writes about Earthbound’s food actually not even being organic: “The growing of the
arugula is indeed organic, but almost everything else is late-capitalist business as usual” (qtd. in

Shapin 430). Pollan accepts that although the developing cycle is natural, the bundling and

transportation are inorganic. Alongside Pollan's assessment, Shapin adds that choosing to eat

organic is an individual’s choice. He correctly states, “There is no way to make food choices

without making moral choices as well” (435). I agree because if someone is vegan they are

making moral choices as well as eating choices because they choose not to eat meat. They think

eating meat is morally wrong and that killing animals is immoral. It is the same as eating

organic. People can get the idea that pesticides are wrong to eat so they choose not to.

Shapin is right when he writes about organic buyers believing there are more nutrients in

organic food compared to inorganic food. Shapin reports that “90% of ‘frequent’ organic buyers

think they’re buying better ‘health and nutrition’” (432). Natural buyers think the "natural" name

guarantees a better item when, in reality, "natural" implies that there is an assurance of no

substance utilized for development. I concur that natural shoppers are deceived in light of the

fact that my involvement in natural food affirms it. Deciding to do my own research, I looked up

the supplements of naturally created food versus financially delivered food. When comparing a

bag of non-organic carrots with a bag of organic, there were no additional nutrients in the organic

carrots; the solitary distinction was that one was marked natural. My experience as an educated

purchaser bolsters Shapin's assertion about natural customers being deceived.

Shapin carries a remarkable highlight in his article when he expounds on the failure of

natural farming. Shapin vocalizes that “[g]iven the way the world now is, sustainably grown and

locally produced organic food is expensive. Genetically modified, industrially produced

monocultural corn is what feeds the victims of the African famine, not the gorgeous organic
technicolor Swiss chard from your local farmers’ market” (439). In offering this remark, Shapin

is arguing that society cannot take care of the world with natural farming. Organic food takes

longer to develop. Without the utilization of pesticides, creepy crawlies are more likely to

destroy a rancher's harvest; without the utilization of ammonium nitrate, a synthetic compost,

crops are malnourished of nitrogen, a fundamental component that yields cannot get a handle on

well. Shapin's assertion about the shortcoming of natural cultivating correctly showcases that

natural farming cannot feed the world.

Throughout his article “What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic?”, Shapin

contends that natural purchasers have more to consider when purchasing natural, and he

effectively composes that natural customers think they are purchasing more supplements with the

natural mark, that they cannot create their own natural food in light of the time and season, and

that they cannot take care of the world we have today in view of their degree of creation. Shapin

causes the peruser to remain alert while also thinking about the natural name and making an

incredible counterargument for natural activists. Ultimately, Shapin offers comments to help

people remember all the little subtleties that make natural food not really "organic.”
 Work Cited

Shapin, Stephen. "What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic?" They Say I Say with

Readings, by Gerald Graff et al., 3rd ed., New York, W.W. Norton and Company, 2015,

pp. 428-441.