Shifting to Organic Foodstuffs – 3 Incontrovertible Reasons
Everybody knows that organic is better all around. It looks better, it takes better, everything about the way it’s grown is better for both the people who eat it and, via its significantly lessened impact on the natural ecosystem, for those who do not. So why doesn’t everyone buy organic? Why do fast food chains and inhumane, mass-produced meat processing facilities thrive and ingredient lists on nutrition labels of most food read like chemistry class? (Why did we ever accept that as normal, anyway?)
The bottom line is the cost: people are either too poor or too cheap to buy organic food, and everybody else just doesn’t care. It’s fundamentally ridiculous that healthy, natural food-the food we are designed to eat-costs more than processed junk, though it is in fact a reality. While some people are simply unwilling to spend the extra money, or make sacrifices in other areas to compensate for cost, many people are just in too low of an income bracket to buy organic foods in the quantities they need to survive.
If that’s not your excuse, however, it’s time you take a step back and really think about what’s in the food you eat every day, the effect it has on your and the effect it has on the environment. Here are three health-related reasons most people don’t realize about why organics are worth every extra penny spent.
Pesticide Toxicity
Our country has been involved in the widespread use of chemical pesticides for approximately four generations. These pesticides were authorized based on research showing levels of tolerance to them-in adults, not children. With the results of many studies indicating that pesticide exposure can result in an increased risk of cancer, a decrease in fertility and adverse effects on the nervous system, this proliferation of toxic chemicals into the very food that we eat is becoming more and more apparent through our lives. Infants alone are vulnerable to hundreds of dangerous chemicals before they’re even born.
Pollution
The amount of apathy towards ongoing and ever-increasing level of pollution is nothing short of amazing. We’ve known for years the adverse effects industrial agriculture has on both its workers and the land it uses, but what about the water and the air? There’s no way to prevent some of the pesticide used from contaminating the air and being carried into populated areas; the contaminated runoff too is inevitable, flowing downstream as all water does eventually to our ocean where “dead zones” in ocean ecosystems are on the rise.
Personal Health
99.5 percent of the farmland in the US uses some kind of agricultural chemical – the remaining .5 percent is the organic crop and pasture land. That is an enormous amount of exposure to toxic agents on all levels – both in the soil, water and air, but also in the bulk of the food available in supermarkets which is made with pesticide treated-ingredients. When you buy organic, you’re supporting that .5 percent that is doing the right thing for the quality of the food it grows, the health of consumers, and the health of the earth.
I didn’t realize myself just how thoroughly contaminated pretty much everything you see in the grocery store is. On some level, I just figured that if it wasn’t okay to eat then the government would surely “do something.” Of course they’re not, and the food’s not safe either, with the scientific analysis of chemical content and bacteria cultures as proof to back that statement up. We know that organic is better, so now it’s time to make the right decision and to make the switch.
This article is part of an ongoing series entitled “Transitioning to Organic” that provides tips, information and easy ways to adopt some or all organic food into your lifestyle.
CB Michaels is a qualified producer of online text and an expert essayist, and nowadays discusses topics which includes large outdoor thermometers and remote grill thermometers.
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