9 Reasons To Buy Organic
1. Organic growing supports a healthy ecosystem. “Organically grown� means a food has been grown or raised in a practical, ecological partnership with nature.. It uses materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole. 2. Organic keeps toxic chemicals off your plate and from the environment. Rather than use pesticides, organic farmers use natural insect predators or other alternative substances that are efficiently broken down and harmless to the environment and the consumer. More than 45,000 different pesticides, formulated from 1,400 active ingredients, find their way into the American market. Over 50 different pesticides are used on broccoli, 60 on green beans, 70 on bell peppers, 110 on apples. Produce is contaminated with insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, growth regulators. With the inclusion of grains, milk, and unprocessed foods, etc., 71.8% of foods have unsafe residues. Farm animals receive an average of 30 times more antibiotics than people. The drugs are used to treat disease and make the animals grow faster. 3. There are significantly higher amounts of trace elements and other nutrients found in organically-grown foods. 4. Organic foods are certified. Certification may be by a private certifying group or a state approved agency. Independent inspectors go to farms to make certain that crops are grown in accordance with meticulous rules regulating the definition of organic.
5. Organic farmers strive to preserve diversity in plant species. Commercial monocropping – growing one plant in a field, often hybrid and limited to a few select types – contributes to the alteration of specific nutrients in the soil and thus the food since the same crop takes the same nutrients from the soil year after year. Plants become more susceptible to disease from nutritional and insecticide-induced weaknesses and from rapid spread of insect or fungus infestation over uniform vegetation. Consequently, plant and animal resistance to disease decreases while the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, and other toxic chemicals increases. 6. Organic food tastes great. The soils used to grow organic foods are wellbalanced and yield strong healthy plants which taste better. The soils used to grow organic foods are well-balanced and yield strong healthy plants which taste better. The color, aroma and taste of fresh foods reflects the nutritional value – minerals, trace minerals, vitamins, enzymes, proteins, sugars, etc. – of the food itself and of the soils used to grow them. 7. Organic farming methods save energy since it is still based on manual labor such as hand-weeding, composting, green manure and crop covers to support soil. Modern commercial farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry. 8. Organic farming protects farm workers. Farmers exposed to herbicides had six times more risk than non-farmers of developing cancer. An estimated one million people are 9. Organic farming helps small farmers. It has been estimated that the United states has lost more than 650,000 family farms in the past decade.