Ten Reasons For Eating Organic2. You pay the real cost of real food
3. You have an independent guarantee (the Soil Association).
4. You protect water quality.
5. You enjoy great flavour & nutrition.
6. You keep chemicals off your plate.
7. You reduce global warming and save energy.
8. You prevent soil erosion.
9. You help small farmers.
10 You help restore biodiversity.
Eating organic food is one of the most important contributions any of us can make to save the Planet. Over 25,000 tons of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are used in Britain every year. More than half of these are known to cause cancer, birth defects, genetic changes or serious irritation if ingested directly, but somehow we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that food can be exposed to such poisons without absorbing them. This has proven to be wrong:
In 1993 government figures showed detectable residues in a wide range of foods, including 29% of fruit and vegetables, 32% of all cereals, 55% of milk and 48% of potatoes.
Buying organically produced food is the best way to encourage farmers to farm organically and stop the spread of poison in the land, the water supply and the food chain.
The term "Organic" is protected by EC law. It means that the product has been rigorously inspected from the farm to the shop by an independent body such as the Soil Association (in the UK) or by an equivalent organisation abroad.
Organic food may seem to cost more in the short term. However, the long term cost of non-organic agriculture, both to ourselves and the environment, is incalculable. Apart from leaving chemical residues in the water and on the land, and poisoning wildlife, today's accepted farming methods use more crude oil than any other industry, in the manufacture of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. Millions of tons of topsoil are washed into the seas because soil structure is broken by chemical fertilisers.
Meanwhile, mountains of surplus are created that are never used or are dumped in the Third World countries, putting their small farmers out of business,
Although Organic Food is more widely available now than ever before, it is necessary to encourage your local healthfood shop to stock organic foods by buying regularly. Potatoes, carrots and onions are fairly cheap and a good way to test how much better organic food tastes. A fresh vegetable, grown naturally without any intereference from chemicals, produces a depth of flavour that is easily lost in factory farming and is able to nourish the body or part of the body that it always has done.
© Copyright Wholistic Research 2003