Photo courtesy of millwhistle at Flickr.com.
One of the criticisms of organic food is that pesticides, chemical fertilizer, and hormone injections are necessary to produce enough food to feed the world. Naysayers often regard organic food as an indulgence of the wealthy and argue that widespread adoption of organic practices could lead to mass starvation.
This idea has legs, despite being repeatedly discredited. A study in 2002 found that organically grown apple orchards produce comparable outputs to other methods. And just this week, the University of Wisconsin found that organic alfalfa, wheat, corn, and soy beans yield a comparable or even superior harvest to conventionally grown crops.
In this research they found that: organic forage crops yielded as much or more dry matter as their conventional counterparts with quality sufficient to produce as much milk as the conventional systems; and organic grain crops: corn, soybean, and winter wheat produced 90% as well as their conventionally managed counterparts
These results are a good news for organic farmers as well as organic consumers. While organic foods and clothes account for just a tiny share of the consumer market today, the organic market is expected to double in size by 2011. If the naysayers are right, this shift in production would reduce supplies at the same time that global demand for high grade food is exploding. Thankfully, organic food has proven that it can meet or exceed dietary needs.
This doesn’t mean that buying organic food is always the best choice. For some foods, the organic label is essentially meaningless (because they aren’t generally grown with fertilizer or pesticides) but foods with the organic label may be priced significantly higher. If you’re on a budget, here’s a list of the 12 foods where buying organic matters the most. These foods are among those most heavily contaminated with pesticides, or where pesticides are often found that pose the greatest risk to humans.
Also, it’s important to consider calorie miles when choosing your food. If the source of organic food is halfway around the world, the food miles spent to bring it to the grocery store can offset the environmental benefits. To raise awareness of food miles, several countries are considering banning organic labels from food that travels by airplane.
Photo courtesy of lillylain at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 8% [?]
18 Feb 08 |
For some, going completely organic with all of your food purchases is overwhelming and often expensive. So consider starting out small, buying a few organic products and building from there. Did you know that a lot of people make the leap to organic products with milk?
Organic milk is a familiar sight in most dairy sections around the country, so it’s an easy gateway to other organic products.
Organic milk has several benefits. For starters, to be labeled by the USDA as “organic,” it must come from cows that have not been treated with any Bovine Growth Hormone. Just to be clear, if you are drinking regular milk, the growth hormone doesn’t show up in your milk just because it is given to a cow. But it gives you peace of mind knowing that the milk you are drinking wasn’t conjured up by giving artificial hormones to cows. Another benefit of organic milk is that it only comes from cows that were not treated with any antibiotics. But you don’t have to worry about the cows. If a cow gets sick, it can still be treated with antibiotics to get well, if they are necessary. Those cows just can’t produce milk with the rest of the herd for one year. Finally, cows that make organic milk also have to be given feed grown without organic pesticides, whether it is grass or grains. And the cows must have access to pasture.
Most organic milk is ultra-pasteurized. That means instead of being heated to 162 degrees for 15 seconds like regular pasteurization, ultra-pasteurized milk is heated to 280 degrees for two seconds, then chilled. The sell-date on ultra-pasteurized milk can be several weeks after the date of purchase, so for a small family or business that doesn’t use milk every day, organic milk is a great way to not be wasteful because it lasts longer. If your milk at home sometimes goes bad before you have a chance to drink it all, then you might actually save money by drinking organic.
Organic milk also uses less energy to produce and creates less waste than non-organic milk since there are no pesticides and chemicals and all the stuff that goes along with that involved. Using less energy to create something just as good or better just makes sense.
So next time you head to the grocery store or super market, try out the organic milk if you aren’t drinking it already. Unless you’re vegan. In that case, go with the organic soy.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Photo courtesy of rmrayner at Flickr.com.
When governments talk about fighting global warming, they put a lot of emphasis on reducing industrial emissions. But, agriculture is responsible for a surprisingly large share of the gases that cause climate change. By some estimates, emissions from fertilizer, animals, and farm equipment account for about 20% of all global warming gases.
Overuse of synthetic fertilizers is a major problem because some of the chemicals in these fertilizers trap heat better than Carbon Dioxide. For instance, Nitrous Oxide can retain 300 times as much heat as CO2. There are many superior organic alternatives, but these account for only a fraction of the fertilizers used today.
Farm animals are another major source of global warming gases. As cows, goats, and sheep digest food, they release a high volume of methane. Cows are responsible for about 75% of all methane made by farm animals. That’s another potent gas behind global warming - Methane is about 25 times better at trapping heat than CO2.
It may be possible to reduce these emissions with big, sweeping government policy. But, if you want to make a difference, change starts in the grocery aisle. The next time you go to the grocery store, consider produce that’s raised with organic fertilizer and leave those slabs of prime rib in the grocer’s freezer. Your body will thank you, and you can breathe easier too!
Photo courtesy of OutdoorAlex at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 9% [?]