At the most simply-put basis, Organic is everything you could dream of for a healthy body, wildlife, and planet.
Natural is NOT Organic
Please remember that "Natural" does Not mean "Organic" in any way shape or form. "Natural" only means that a food product does not have any preservatives, synthetic additives, colors, or flavorings Added. But you are still biting into a mouthful of pesticides and still facing all the horrors of non-organic crops.
Pesticides:
There are over a thousand chemical pesticides available for use in Canada alone. Depending what country you live in will make a difference on the standards in place. Many pesticides are banned in one country, due to their links to cancer, reproductive disorders, and acute toxicity, yet are still used in other countries. And with so much of our food being imported, things get pretty mucky no matter where you live.
Pesticides have hormone-mimicking, neurotoxic, reproductive-impairing properties, with about 60% of them being hormone disruptors.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 200, 000 people die every year from pesticide poisoning.
These nasty pesticides don't just stay on their designated crops either, less than 5% end up where they are supposed to as the winds will carry them hald way across the world. Chems banned 20 years ago, such as DDT, are blowing over from countries where they are still in use!
Fertilizers:
Laziness has made it so that crops are no longer rotated to let the land's soil rebuild itself. Now the soil is pumped full of potent petrochemical fertilizers instead. 31% of all fossil fuels used by North American farms goes into fertilizes, much of which ends up in rivers, lakes, and oceans. This is bad because overdoses of nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizer runoff can create massive algae blooms that suffocate aquatic life and create large dead zones.
Water:
Global agriculture suck up about 70% of all the water we use on this planet.
What's extra silly is that Canada has some of the most water-intensive crops (grains and cattle) and 60% of that agriculture happens in the Prairies--which just so happens to be the driest part of the country!
Irradiation:
Is the zapping of our food with gamma rays, x-rays or electron beams to get rid of germs, slows the sprouting, ripening, and moulding processes so that products can sit on shelves longer. This may sound like a good idea, but the process drains some of the vitamins out of food and it also creates radioactive waste.
Irradiated foods are supposed to be clearly marked with an international symbol, and if more than 10% of the ingredients in packaged products have been irradiated the label has to list which ones.
GMO:
Here is a prime example of our attempts at playing God without considering the consequences. Genetically modified organisms are developed in labs when genes from different organisms are spliced into another to create so-called "super-foods," but really there is nothing "super" about it. They are meant to improve hardiness, pesticide resistance, and draught resistance, or any other number of things. But GMOs have not been around long enough to know the long-term health effects and they are hardly tested enough to be put out on the market. We really don't understand their effects in nature and have already disrupted natural species, helped continuously create "super weeds" that evolve and grow more resilient to GMO crops, and create super insects with similar aspects. Plus, once they're exposed to wildlife you can't exactly completely remove those pesky GMOs from the environment, as they are carried by animals, insects, winds, and waterways all over the world.
There is no labeling for which foods or packaged foods are GMO either--that is unless you're buying Organic.
Pesticide Regulation:
We'd like to think that Pesticides are "safe" for human health but the testing process is a joke, with minimal testing done all-together. Steps are skipped due to pressure, and older pesticides have by-passed the new safety standards, which never put into account the effect of pesticides on children's health. Not to mention that these nasty chemicals are tested on animals which react entirely differently in their bodies than ours (what might be poisonous to us might not be to them and vise versa). Pesticide regulations in the U.S. are far behind much of the rest of the industrialized world, largely in part due to corporations like Monsanto having such an influence in Government affairs, and because the U.S. does not adequately account for things like additive and synergetic effects*. The European Union regulates much of their pesticide use with the "precautionary principle," which prioritizes protecting human health when there is significant doubt about the safety of a product. In the U.S. such products are "innocent until proven guilty," which often takes decades to prove whether or not a chemical is guilty or not, and in the meantime can wreck all sorts of environmental damage and health hazards.
*Synergetic Effects: when one type of pesticide plus another type of pesticide equals a more lethal effect due to their combination. A scary thought when conventional crops use more than one type of pesticide so this dangerous cocktail is very likely.
Environment, Wildlife, and Human Health:
Organic does not pollute groundwater, rivers, lakes, and oceans with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Organic reduces soil erosion, improves soil quality, increases biodiversity and wildlife on and near farms. Organic does not expose workers to the health hazards of synthetic pesticides.
Countless animals die due to the spread of pesticides; 30 registered pesticides are known to kill wild birds, fish, and important beneficial insects. They also weaken animals and create birth-defects.
Furthermore, the growing consensus among the scientific community is that the consumption of pesticides and other chemicals can possibly cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists are warning of the long-term consequences of ingesting these chemicals and are advising that we minimize our consumption of pesticides. The truth is that we still don't know just how badly these pesticides effect human health.
The impacts of pesticides on human health have been linked to causing ADHD in children, birth defects and childhood cancer in the very young, Parkinsons’ Disease in the elderly, asthma, cause neurotoxicity, hormone disruptors, developmental or reproductive toxins, and are known or probable carcinogens. Not to mention they are toxic to Honeybees and are a probable cause of the growing CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) problem. These chemicals also linger in our systems for years, and there is always pesticide residue left behind on non-organic foods even once they reach the grocery store.
Buying Organic is a Responsibility to the World:
Organic doesn't just mean that the food is pesticide-free, it also means it's grown in soil that has been untouched by chemical fertilizers or pesticides for at least three years. The soil is properly taken care of and is rotated, fostering the soil's nutrients instead of kiling it and rendering it useless like conventional crops. Organic food can not be irradiated or fumigated with synthetic agents. It is free of genetically modified organisms (GMO), hormones, and fake processing aids (such as coloring, preservatives and flavorings). Organic is real, true, un-altered food, packed full of nutrients and vitamins. You don't have to worry about getting sick from chemical pesticides. You don't have to worry about your child developing health problems. Organic harmonizes with Earth instead of poisoning wildlife, workers, waterways, the air, and the ground.
Peace & Love,
xo
~Bianca
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