going organic - the facts

It is a fact; organic food is better for you. Yes, it does cost more, but have you ever thought about the price you pay for purchasing and consuming non organic foodstuffs? The cost to your body, and to the world? In fact when you clock up the price of cleaning up our water supply, the price of cleaning up ecological disasters and trying to rectify the destruction caused by agri-business (not agriculture anymore!), then organic food probably comes in at less than the cost of conventional food.

Health Benefits

- Organic food has a higher nutritional content than its intensively farmed counterpart. Hence it tastes better, and apple for apple, you get more of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Fact.

- Organic food hasn’t been sprayed with herbicides (to keep the weeds down) or pesticides (to keep the creatures at bay), so when you eat organic you are eating chemical free food. If you could see all those toxic chemicals would you really pour them down your throat?

- Organic food is the fruit of this earth in its most natural form. No additives, preservatives, E-numbers, monosodium glutamate, trans-fats, hydrogenated oils, palm fat or any of the other nasties added to the food you eat needed to make it taste better. It is fantastic just as it is.

- Organic food prohibits the use of ANY GM material. The consequences of eating GM food are unknown, but it makes sense to question when you alter the DNA of a natural species and then you eat this altered DNA, what are you doing to your body? Feed for livestock has to be GM free. All plants must come from organic seed, which is guaranteed GM free, and natural fertiliser (such as cow manure) used to help the plants along must be from a GM free source. Benefits for the world

- Intensive farming leads to the depletion of the soil’s goodness. The fruit and vegetables you eat are only as good as the soil that they are grown in. The same crops harvested over and over in the same soil means that important nutrients and minerals are leached from the soil, leaving it barren. That is why land is treated with large amounts of artificial fertiliser to allow plants to grow. In effect the soil is actually dead.

- To make intensive farming more efficient, crops cover huge areas. Monoculture is the name of the game when talking about large agri-business farms. Sometimes thousands of acres covered with a single crop meaning that natural fauna and wildlife cannot survive, and microsystems die. Huge quantites of chemicals are required to try and maintain this unnatural system in a viable state. However nature always finds a way; seen in herbicide resistant weeds and bugs, causing the farmer to increase the doseage of chemical applied. Organic farmers encourage the natural system to flourish and weeds and pests can be controlled naturally.

- Food has gone global. A green bean can now be growing in African soil one day, and be tossed into your supermarket trolley three days later. But at what cost to the planet? Food clocks up air miles just like we do when we fly, and air travel is a major cause of pollution. Organic food from a supermarket can be little better in this regard than conventional foods – apples from New Zealand? But there are alternatives for the organic consumer, and buying local is an important part of what organic means.

Think broader than fruit and vegetables

- You can make a difference to your health and to the world by choosing to buy other organic produce such as meat, fish, tea, coffee; the list of organic foodstuffs available is endless. What about the cost:

- Intensive farming allows food to be produced cheaply (or so it seems), in a uniform manner, resulting in bland, tasteless, fruit and vegetables that all look the same, and in a supermarket, due to the selection process, are all the same size.

- Organic farming is far more labour intensive (as I can testify having weeded my way through half an acre last summer), producing fantastic smelling and tasting food of a huge variety. It's fresh, often local, and the price reflects this.

So you have a choice

You are probably already aware of the need to put good things into your body, and the link between your nutritional intake and your performance.

True, organic food is more expensive, but now you know the reason why. If everyone bought organic the cost of it would go down, enabling more people to reduce the amount of chemicals they consume. Perhaps the principle ‘less is more’ can be applied – just have meat a couple of times a week and make that organic or at least free range.

Buy organic whenever you can. Every little bit counts and will mean less toxic chemicals in your system. Organic food can be the only choice for a cleaner world and body. Say ‘no’ to chemicals and large corporations dictating what you buy and how you buy it. Vote with your wallet and make the decision to help yourself and smaller local producers who are trying to do something good.