Last week while working my checkout shift at the coop, I often overheard members comment on this or that organic food... rationalizing buying it or not according to its level of harmfulness to our bodies. "Bananas don't need to be organic because you can peel the skins back"... "you can wash grapes off pretty well, I'm not paying the extra cost."
While our own personal health is one of the most compelling reasons to purchase organic products (and therefore avoid pesticides, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and other toxins used to help non-organic food fight off pests and grow marketable qualities), there's a lot more about the "organic" issue to be considered than our personal health. Inspired by this experience, I've devised a multi-part series to clarify some of the issues we hear tossed around, and shed light on some important overlooked details.
This week I'll begin with what "organic" means, and some of the top reasons you should consider buying it. Next week I'll discuss the contention between buying "local" and buying "organic".
What does "organic" really mean?
Originally, all foods were “organic” – grown and prepared without pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, irradiation to prevent spoilage, etc. Foods were unrefined, whole, or at most minimally processed. Since World War II and the advent of chemical farming and food processing, much of the world's food and soil has undergone dramatic change. This change initially created cost efficiencies (enabling large-scale production, larger plants, relief from pests), but now we're seeing a depletion of nutrients and minerals from our soil and food, among other serious issues.
Today, the word "organic" is typically referential to this label you may see on foods - a label a producer can only earn by successfully completing and funding an exhaustive certification process overseen and granted by the United States Department of Agriculture. When you see this label on your food, it means the food was grown in conditions mostly devoid of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. There are some provisions which allow for certain chemicals to be used for storage or sanitation purposes - so "certified organic" doesn't mean "free from chemical association of any kind" - this is the type of footnote one must make when a word like "organic" is coopted by a government agency - but for the most part your food is chemically unadulterated. There are more loopholes to this certification, which we'll get to in a later installment (essentially meaning that some producers are organic but haven't gotten the certification) but suffice to say you can be assured that any food with these labels are pretty much devoid of the gnarly chemicals you aim to avoid.
Typically, foods that are not organic are termed "conventional" (you'll see this sign at places like Whole Foods) - even though the "convention" of using pesticides and other chemical agents to grow our food has only been around for the past 50 years or so. The dynamic of these changes in preparing our world's food supply are pervasive and fascinating, and it is for this reason that "eating organic" is about a lot more than just our health.
What follows are some of the most compelling reasons we should all consider supporting organic food.
Top 10 reasons to shop for and eat organic foods
1. Keep chemicals off your plate: Pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms, and can also be harmful to humans. Many EPA-approved pesticides were registered long before extensive research linked these chemicals to cancer and other diseases. Organic agriculture is one way to prevent any more of these chemicals from getting into the air, earth and water that sustain us – not to mention our plates. Pesticides, which have been shown to cause cancer, as well as liver, kidney and blood diseases, must be dealt with by the immune system. As pesticides get lodged and increase in our tissues, the immune system becomes weakened, allowing other carcinogens and pathogens to affect our health. Organic certification is the public’s assurance that products have been grown and handled according to strict procedures without persistent toxic chemical inputs.
2. Protect future generations: Children receive four times more exposure than adults to cancer causing pesticides in foods.
3. Protect water quality: The EPA estimates that pesticides pollute the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country's population.
4. Support a true economy: Organic foods might seem expensive; however your tax dollars pay for hazardous waste clean up and environmental damage caused by conventional farming. Not to mention the public health bill arguably incurred by ingesting pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers.
5. Global warming: More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the crops in the U.S. Growing food organically uses about a third less fossil fuel than growing it conventionally. (This relates directly to the next installment, "local vs organic" - stay tuned...) Also, one study done in 2005 (2) found that organic agriculture systems absorb and retain significant amounts of carbon (from the air) in the soil.
6. Prevent soil erosion: Three billion tons of topsoil are eroded from crop lands in the U.S. each year, much of it due to conventional farming practices, which often ignore the health of the soil. If we deplete the health of the soil, we will have trouble growing in that soil.
7. Promote biodiversity: Planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, but the lack of natural diversity of plant life has negatively affected soil quality.
8. Organic farmers work in harmony with nature: Organic agricultural respects the balance demanded of a healthy ecosystem: wildlife is encouraged by including forage crops in rotation and by retaining fence rows, wetlands, and other natural areas.
9. Help small farmers: Although more and more large scale farms are making the conversion to organic practices, most organic farms are small, independently owned and operated family farms. USDA reported that in 1997, half of U.S. farm production came from only 2% of farms. Organic agriculture can be a lifeline for small farms because it offers an alternative market where sellers can command fair prices for crops.
10. Flavor and Nourishment: Plants get their nutrients from photosynthesis of the sun's light, and mostly from the soil they grow in. Therefore they can only be as nutritious as that soil is. Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil. Well-balanced soil produces strong, healthy plants that taste great. Conduct your own taste test... you'll see for yourself.
The Cost of Organic
Now I know what you're going to say about cost: organic is too expensive. I think it's important to consider how much you can spend and just do the best you can, but please take this little argument into consideration: the cost of conventional food is not truly representative of the true cost to the environment, public health, and your personal, long-term health. If you consider what you might be saving in renewable resources (which does hit our personal bills in the form of energy and taxes), our health (long-term personal health in the form of disease and illness, much of which can be traced back to toxins in our system wreaking havoc at a cellular level... AND public health which, once again, hits our wallets in the form of taxes or increased insurance premiums)... organic is a bargain if you consider these rolled up costs.
If you value what you've read thusfar in this article, I'd like to echo a metaphor originally drawn by author Barbara Kingsolver that might drive the point home. We live in New York City - and many of us pay a premium each month in rent. Expensive, right? But housing is cheaper in, say, Pennsylvania, where your month's rent here could probably afford you half a year's rent, right? So why do we continue to put up with expensive rents here? Because we value living in New York City. And we're willing to pay for it. In the same way, I urge you to consider where your values lie and what's worth paying for. We pay less for our food in this country than any other country in the WORLD. We can afford it to some degree, and if we're choosing not to, we are paying for it elsewhere, guaranteed.
Stay tuned for the second installment about Organic Food... Eating Local vs Eating Organic.
Sources:
1. Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment: Understanding the New USDA Organic Label http://www.ilea.org/articles/usda_organic.html
2. Studies in How and Why Organic Farming must become the Norm in USA: http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-000808.htm
