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Organic food selection is becoming a frequent topic in the news media, reflecting the fact that many farmers, food stores and consumers are tuning into the environment in which their food is grown. These consumers are coming to realize that pesticides used in conventional farming pose a threat to their immune systems and livers, and are hazardous to the environment. For those who don’t grow their own produce or have access to a reliable grower, organically produced food is turning out to be the answer.
Organic products are grown without pesticides that contain harmful chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases. When dangerous pesticides are used on crops, they enter the ground water and air around the crop, endangering both the area in which the food is grown and the consumer who eventually buys the food items.
The Organic Trade Association is a group that promotes organic farming. They have explained that many Environmental Protection Agency approved pesticides were registered and approved for use well before research had been completed on the link between the chemicals and disease. Industry strength and lobbying has kept these chemicals from being banned even after research has revealed their harmful effects in the body.
Organic doesn’t simply mean fruits, vegetables and grains that aren’t treated with pesticides. It also refers to the raising of animals for meat products. James A. Riddle, the endowed chair of agricultural systems at the University of Minnesota, says that raising organic livestock includes a “ban on the feeding of mammalian and poultry slaughter by-products to organic mammals and poultry.” Organic meat comes from animals that have fed on grass and been given a vegetarian diet.
While outrage against the ingesting of dangerous pesticides persists, more and more consumers are becoming incensed with the damage that chemical pesticides cause to the environment. “In a 2006 paper by Geen and Firth, the environment was found to be a major concern for committed organic consumers,” reported The Organic Guide.
The drawbacks to consuming organic foods are the limited availability and higher cost. Though the cost of organic items is often higher than their conventionally grown counterparts, the small increase in purchase price is considered to be worth it by many consumers. The food, because it’s organic, has little to no harmful effects in the body. Supporting organic foods also helps sustain the environment by keeping those same chemicals out of our water supplies, soil and air.
To find organic food items, Lucy Lazarony for bankrate.com recommends looking in special sections at supermarkets, and in health food stores, specialty stores and gourmet delis. Often health food retailers have the lowest prices and the freshest organic selection.
To support the local economy and community, farmers’ markets and community agricultural programs offer another variety of options, with items changing depending on the season. Community co-ops, where you tend a garden plot and trade the food grown within, can be a great way to find organic offerings and to connect with the locale in which you reside and the people in it who share your concerns.
Greenfeet.net, a web site with recommendations for living a more eco-friendly lifestyle, advises that consumers should decide which organic items they’d like to regularly buy and which items they may not want to spend the extra money on. “Dairy products, produce and grains may take precedence, while you may decide that it is not necessary to spend the extra money on a bottle of organic ketchup,” it says. But remember that produce used in bottled or packaged foods will have been grown conventionally with pesticides unless it is specifically labeled as organic.
