Why bother with organic?

Sometimes it’s hard to swallow the price difference between conventional products and organic. And why bother? I could just stick with a few things. There are so many lists out there about “What You Should and Shouldn’t Buy Organic,” “When It Pays to Buy Organic,” “Twelve Foods to Eat Organic.” But let me tell you why I buy everything organic that I can. It’s certainly not about the label and it’s not only about health.

It’s the environment as well.

“Farms are often very large, highly specialized, and run like factories with large inputs of fossil fuels, pesticides and other chemicals, and synthetic fertilizers derived from oil. (Read more: Source)

It’s safe jobs.

“The primary goal of industrial farms is to maximize profits… Workers on industrial farms and those in the food-processing industry are often subject to hazardous working conditions and unfair labor management practices. (Read more: Source)

It’s jobs, period.

“In 2010, the use of organic ingredients created 21% more jobs than the use of ingredients from conventional farming would have… Because organic farms tend to be smaller and more labour intensive, they require more hands on deck, while the certification process also leads to job creation. At the retail level, organic products tend to rely on smaller stores, also leading to an increase in jobs. (Read more: Source)

It’s the idea of all of the above. It’s reprioritizing what we eat, how we use our purchasing power, and telling big business that we care about more than the bottom line. It’s “a vote for a better world” Michael Pollan.

And remember that food is one of the most important things in which we invest, if not the most important.

Still interested?

Must-See Documentaries

Spend an hour or two having your eyes opened by these documentaries (you can find them all on Netflix). What’s more important than what you put into your body?

Top Three

Your Food Vote: Part 2

“There is another consumer being born out there, one who takes a broader view of his interests, understands that spending more on higher-quality food is worth it on so many levels, and who treats his food purchases as a kind of vote for a better world.”

From Michael Pollan’s Letter to Whole Foods  (Author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, among others).  Definitely take a few minutes to give it a read.   He provides a very sensible perspective and his comments on Whole Foods stores are worth thinking about.

More on voting here

Your Food Vote

“We get to vote three times a day” Michael Pollan

I’ve been watching and re-watching, reading and re-reading, more food and agriculture documentaries and books than usual lately as I more deeeply explore what I want this blog to become, documentaries like Vanishing ofthe Bees, The Future of Food, Frankensteer, Food Matters, Forks Over Knives, and King Corn.  Books like Food Matters, The Omnivores Dielmma, Harvest for Hope, and Social Policy for Development.

Part of me is concerned that I’m exposing myself to blatantly bias information but I’m honestly not sure how to get around that.  The fact is we continue to have starving people in the world, and industrial farms are increasingly seen as the wrong way to resolve this.  We know that people are very concerned about the health consequences of conventionally grown plants and raised animals and GMO’s.  And the environment and natural ecosystems are certainly not benefiting from our chemicals and monocultures.

Where, then, is the benefit of modern agriculture?  In the cost of our groceries?  Well, my view is that food is one of the most important things that we can invest in.  Live a pro-active life of prevention rather than a reactive life of treatment.  Eating ‘right’ is good for you in terms of both what you are directly ingesting and what is being put into your environment and the infinite indirect consequences.

Monocultures and industrial farming are rapidly depleting soils of natural nutrients thus robbing soils of their ability to restore themselves, and throwing off intricate balances in the environments.  These soils require more and more chemical fertilizers to produce viable crops, further polluting the planet and our bodies.

Seed variety is dwindling, making crops more vulnerable and damaging the self-sustaining biodiversity of the planet found in the wild.

Pesticide and seed companies are in each others pockets or are often the same company, so this small variety of crops that farmers are growing are requiring ever higher amounts of chemicals to grow.  Pesticides and insecticides which originated as weapons of chemical warfare are destroying the balance that agriculture, animals, insects and the environment have sustained for hundreds of thousands of years.

These are not hypotheticals.  There are noticeable, measurable consequences to how we vote at the grocery store or farmers market.

So, how important is what you choose to eat?