Finally, plants react vigorously when attacked by disease organisms and synthesise many chemicals that are carcinogenic. Thus organic cider from apples has much higher patulin levels, and celery has higher levels of psoralen which, without careful harvesting, can cause serious skin burns. Much more investigation is needed into the carcinogen content of organic food as it is sold. The list goes on. Organic foods cost more, because the farming is more labour -intensive and suffers greater losses to weeds and insects.
Organic manures are less effective than chemical fertilisers.
To institute organic farming countrywide would mean ploughing up wilderness, hedges and woodland to make up the shortfall compared to intensive farming, and putting people back into farm labour - generally associated with poor pay and long hours. Efficient farming releases land for animals and plants that cannot easily co-exist with any form of agriculture. But exciting possibilities do exist. To combine the power of genetic modification with an efficient, sustainable agriculture free of requirements for crop sprays. The philosophy of minimal impact upon the world ecosystem is the right one to safeguard the future.