Yes, American food producers have had their problems from time to time—but nothing like some of the imports from China purported, for example, to be fertilized with human excrement and such. I assiduously check where my foods come from and am as selective as I can be, but let’s face it: Consumers and businesses do not have the same goals….
Farm-raised fish and shellfish are problematic in that diseases tend to break out where the fish are so concentrated and have to be treated in ways that carry over to us as the consumers. So yes, wild caught is healthier. Cows are given bovine growth hormone that carries over to us. Analogous to this is the increased use of pesticides necessary with genetically modified foods. There is no way that concentration of pesticides can be removed from what we eat. In the U.S., for example, D.D.T. was banned in the early 1970s; we have no idea what pesticides are used elsewhere, yet another reason to stick with U.S. grown or produced.
Is shopping organic more costly than non-organic? You betcha! I make every effort to prioritize and at times give up on something unrelated to my food shopping in order to do more rather than less organic. I get my produce from a local organic farm that, BTW, costs no more than produce at our local supermarkets. I know I can never get to 100 percent—but I also know that the more effort I make, the better off I am!
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