Why Should I Eat Organically Grown Foods?

Answer: Well, you should eat more organically grown foods for many reasons including:

1) Fewer Allergies and Illnesses: You won’t be exposed to harmful chemicals like herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, antibiotics and hormones. Did you know that some chemicals that are illegal to sell in the United States are still made here and sold overseas? These countries then grow the produce and ship it back to us! USDA estimates that 20% of our fruits and vegetables are imported and that only 1-2% of these are inspected for pesticide residues. It is now estimated that 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all pesticides are carcinogenic.

2) Organic Foods Taste Better. Organically grown foods have more and better quality vitamins, minerals antioxidants, amino acids than non-organic produce… and they taste better!

3) Organic foods protect your children. Children are much more vulnerable to toxins than adults. The average child is exposed to four times as many cancer causing pesticides in food than adults based on what they like to eat.

4) Organic Gardening/growing practices help Preserve air and water quality. The use of herbicides and pesticides pollutes water sheds, lakes and streams with the run off. Some herbicides actually evaporate into the air after application and drift for miles (still having bad effects on plant life miles distant!). Some agricultural chemicals bind to dust particles which you breathe in during dust storms. Nitrate fertilizers can cause Sudden Infant death Syndrome in kids. (Read Michael’s Water and Nitrates handout: http://naturalhealthtechniques.com/BasicsofHealth/Water_files/waterepanitratefactsheet.htm .)

5) Organic Farming helps prevent erosion. In North America, soil is eroding seven times faster than it can be replaced. Organic farmers are bound by law and oath to have a soil building program in place for maintaining or improving the land and building soil microbes which make those things that grow in it healthier to eat—like making compost!

6) Eating Organic Protects Farm Worker Health. Farm workers are exposed to the highest concentrations of agricultural poisons of any segment of the population (Golfers may be close second because they walk on lawn and turf chemicals, handle them by touching their golf balls and breathe them for hours at a time.) These chemicals cross the blood brain barrier and can eat away at the brain causing plaques and multiple sclerosis signs.

7) You’ll know the source of your food. Most organic farms are independently owned and operated and less than 100 acres. Buying locally helps support your neighbors and keeps more of your money working in your own community. We encourage you to… Buy Local and get to Know your Farmer!

8) Saves Energy. Buying organic also cuts down on pollution because the produce is not trucked in. Also, third world countries are not exploited. Many organic farmers incorporate alternative and renewable energy sources into their farming/homesteading systems. Talk about going, ”green”!

9) Organic Farming Promotes Bio-diversity. The practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop, year after year (monocropping) is detrimental to the soil by depleting the soil of nutrients. This causes farmers to become more and more dependent on fertilizers and also upsets nature’s pest controls by reducing species variety. Have you ever thought about why we are having a problem with colony collapse in bees? Could large and/or corporate farming practices be at fault? (To read about colony collapse and what you can do about it, go to: http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp?gclid=CKehnqjPrJQCFRwvagodpUCitQ )

10) Organic Foods are GMO free. GMOs pose unacceptable risks to bio-diversity and natural ecosystems.

Reference to read the entire article including wonderful educational links: http://www.thefutureisorganic.net/tenreasons.htm

Helpful Links and References for Organic Gardening and Newsletters:

• Organic Gardening Tips (hundreds of them!) http://www.organicgardentips.com

• 50 Organic Gardening Tips: http://www.bcec.us/uploads/50_Tips_on_Organic_Gardening.pdf

• Wonderful Organic newsletter Resource: http://www.organicnewstoday.com