JordanDProductionz wrote: ↑Sat Nov 10, 2018 9:40 amI'm not the most knowledgable and would like to know if buying non organic is more ethical, do these manure profits actually lead to animals being harmed? i thought it was just left over by product.
It's absolutely more ethical to buy non-organic. The manure, blood meal, etc. is part of it. Even sometimes whole fish ground up.
The bigger thing is probably the yield, though: organic yields a lot less per area of land, so it means more forest has to be cut down and more animals killed to grow and maintain the land.
JordanDProductionz wrote: ↑Sat Nov 10, 2018 9:40 amIf it's just about giving them money then sure that isn't great but is it any less ethical than giving the gmo companies money?
Most conventional food is not GMO, there's plenty of non-organic and non-GMO food.
I would also note that conventional breeding is just as much of a racket. Pretty much ALL the plants you can buy, including organic, are patented. This isn't an issue exclusive to transgenic GMO. Normal breeding is a patent-able form of modification too.
However, there's nothing wrong with giving money to GMO companies. GMO companies are just supplying a product. The fact that the product is often used to feed livestock doesn't mean buying it for human consumption is paying animal ag.
At that point, you'd have to boycott water too, since water is also used for animal ag.
There's a different relationship there to the direct support.
JordanDProductionz wrote: ↑Sat Nov 10, 2018 9:40 amand wouldn't more gmo profits lead to cheaper gmo animal feed which benefits animal agriculture? I'm a bit confused
Not really, their R&D budget is pretty much fixed, and animal agriculture is enough to support that on its own.
That link is really indirect and frankly you could say that about pretty much anything in the economy or infrastructure (note the comment about water). It's not direct and obvious like the manure link.
However, you could make that argument about buying soybean
OIL.
Humans eat the oil, and that arguably subsidizes soybean meal to be used as animal feed.
In contrast, if you buy TVP you're actually competing with animal agriculture for the protein and thus raising prices for animal feed, harming animal agriculture.
Buying whole soybeans has pretty much no subsidy or competition effect... or mixed effects (competing in the market raises the price for soy for animal ag, but also more purchase means economy of scale, etc. impossible to say the net effect).
All that said, I would only prefer conventional over organic when there's an option, and not really worry about buying organic food if you don't have a good alternative.