Several people have asked me, "Why organic?" or have laughed or rolled their eyes at the notion.
*Sigh*
I, too, once thought organic was a gimmick.
It's really not (most of the time). ;)
I literally wish I could do an academic paper on the subject, synthesizing research from the four corners of the world and putting all of the latest, greatest, TRUE information in one place.
I capitalize "true," because I don't profess to believe all of the environmental hypotheses out there that are being presented as Bible truth.
That said, here are a few/quick/main reasons why eating organic whenever possible is just a good idea:
> First and foremost before any other discussion, you are what you eat.
We just don't think about what we're putting into our bodies half the time. Your body breaks down everything you eat into tiny, microscopic pieces. Although you may not be paying attention, your body is. If it's junk, you can't hide that from your body. And if you want your body to make quality things out of what you put in it, you have to feed it nice things. You don't expect a $10 chair to last as long as a $100 chair for a reason. You have to start with good materials. Then you can trust your body to be a master craftsman.
Ok, that said, read on!
> If everyone converted just 10% of their diet to organic, we could capture an additional billion pounds of carbon in soil.
What the majority of our food is grown on now will not be sustainable. The farmers cannot even feed the plants through the soil anymore, which was the original intention. Now, they're spraying food to give nutrition to food. Weird. Soil needs worms!
> Speaking of spraying, 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides, and 30% of all insecticides are considered carcinogenic by the EPA and others.
Although our lifespan was increasing, we see more crazy cancers now than ever before. We have gotten good at killing common illness with antibiotics (which are becoming overused, too, but that's another story!), but now we're dying from all sorts of preventable illnesses! What's totally scary is that the new generation of children is going to be the first generation that won't be as healthy (or healthier) than their parents. There is absolutely no reason why we should be going backwards!
Obviously it's not just the "cides" we're using on our foods. It's our every day choices. But if I'm going to eat something every day, I'd rather a caterpillar once crossed over it than to be ingesting hundreds of chemicals that are inherently toxic.
There are so many health horror stories about the people who mix and apply these treatments. If just being around something gave you a bloody nose every time you encountered it, wouldn't you get the idea that maybe it wasn't too healthy? That happens to those people!
> Animal agriculture operations produce 73% of all ammonia air pollution in the US.
People, if you buy anything organic, please let it be your meat! I will have to write a whole other blog on this subject. Trust me. We were never, ever intended to eat meat the way it is prepared these days. Choose organic!
> There is so much chemical runoff in certain agricultural regions that now there are dead zones (where the oxygen levels are too low to support life), and these dead zones continue to grow.
You wouldn't go strangle wildlife for no reason. This is doing just that. I say for "no reason," because organic farmers have found natural ways to beat the system, and they don't have to use these insane amounts of toxic chemicals.
I agree that some of the agricultural practices that are used today have allowed us to feed the hungry at much lower prices. But 1) this has called for a HUGE sacrifice in the quality of food and 2) research has shown that if all farmers converted to organic, we could still feed the world (and it would be a sustainable practice!). Yes, really!
Plus, these poor people are eating all this cheap, low quality food and acquiring these metabolic syndromes as a result of the crap they eat. They end up paying for medical bills and medications. They could have used that money in the first place to buy better food. OR we end up paying for their medical bills. Lose - Lose.
If I am the consumer and I can make a difference by creating a demand for higher quality food, I'm going to do it! I'm not necessarily a tree hugger, but I do absolutely believe in being a good steward of what we have. We can't just haphazardly or recklessly produce and consume now and ignore the future generations. God is trusting us with this beautiful planet, to make the most of it while we're here. I wouldn't let my home or relationships go to hell, so why would I want the earth or my body to suffer?
Sometimes it's impossible to go 100% organic. I can't even. But all of this is really just a message to say THINK about what you put into your body. SUPPORT the organic farmers, especially of America (by buying local as much as possible), since they are trying to do it the right way. Organic isn't even always nutritionally superior. But you can rest in the fact that it is real, untreated nourishment.
There is so much more to be written. Maybe one day I will write it all!
In the meantime, here are some books and documentaries to check out...
Food, Inc.
[documentary]
(if you only do one of these, make it this one!)
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
[documentary]
Food Matters
[documentary]
Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser
[long book]
Food Rules
by Michael Pollan (or anything by this author)
[very short book]
Hope this helps you skeptics out there!
P.S. Don't forget!
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