Organically grown solutions

“I went over to a huge farm that produces hundreds of bushels of tomatoes...beautiful plants, not a weed in them…all of a sudden I thought: What’s wrong here? There was not a bird or a bee or a fly...but there were these huge trucks with giant tanks spraying the pesticides and the herbicides.”

-- Marge Ratliff, organic farmer

Quick tips

The benefits of organically grown food: Not only are organic products grown without toxic chemicals and fertilizers, but the land must be free of prohibited substances for a minimum of three years. Detailed records must be kept, which can track the finished product all the way back to the farm. Organic convenience foods (such as granola bars, cookies and corn chips) cannot contain chemical additives that are common in conventional food such as aspartame, hydrogenated oils, artificial preservatives and colors.

The benefits of organic convenience foods: When you see the organic label on packaged food products, it’s your assurance that they’ve been manufactured without such unhealthy additives as hydrogenated oils, petroleum-based artificial colors and synthetic preservatives. It’s the one way you can allow your kids to have convenience foods, yet still keep their diet free of chemicals.

Start your own organic garden: You don’t have to give up your day job and become a farmer; even a container or two of tomatoes or herbs can be fun to grow and will be a healthful addition to your diet. Your kids will be proud of their efforts, and may even start eating vegetables they wouldn’t have looked at before.

Where have the vitamins and minerals gone? Fresh vegetables may look the same as they did in the ‘70s, but as far as certain vitamins and minerals go, things have changed. It seems that the nutritional value of certain vegetables being grown at the end of the ‘90s had significantly less amounts of iron, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C than those being grown 22 years ago. Why are they missing? The USDA says it doesn’t know; however experts have suggested that chemically-based agriculture has robbed the soil of its fertility, and that poor soil, in turn, produces inferior crops.

Things you can do now!

• Support organic farming by asking your retailer to stock more organic products. Vote for safe, nutritious food and good agricultural practices by how you spend your dollars.
• Not only can you buy organically grown food, but clothing as well. Support the earth with the shirt on your back.
• Think locally. Start by setting an example in your own front yard and stop using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Cancel the visits from the "lawn care” companies. Dandelions are beneficial plants, not public enemy number one.
• Even if you don’t have a lot of space, you can start at least one container of organic tomatoes or a window box of organic herbs.

The invisible differences between conventionally and organically grown commodities or ingredients may not seem to matter all that much. But, as it turns out, those differences go far deeper than most parents may ever have realized. In addition to exposing kids and adults to a variety of poisons that tend to accumulate and interact in the body, chemically cultivated foods may well be depriving our children of the nutrients so essential to good health (and having adverse effects on the environment as well). Another advantage in choosing organic foods is that they don’t contain any artificial colorings, flavorings, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and partially hydrogenated oils. You might even be able to leave your label-reading glasses at home!

What it all boils down to is a choice between foods that are quite possibly less beneficial than they used to be and in all probability contain traces of toxic chemicals, and essentially poison-free foods that are apt to have retained a higher nutritional value.

Once you understand these differences, the choices you make will all fall into place.

Saving our Soil from Chemical Addiction

For most consumers, the term “organic” used to describe food has come to mean that it was grown without any toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. That’s true -- but it doesn’t define the broader meaning of the word, which offers a more complete understanding of its application to crop cultivation. In its more complete sense, “organic” refers to a system of sustainable agriculture that is very much the opposite of the fragmented, short-sighted farming techniques that have reduced both the safety and quality of our conventional food supply.

The use of the word “organic” in this regard goes back at least 60 years, when it was first believed to have been used in a book entitled “Look to the Land” by Lord Northbourn. This book was one which envisioned the farm as “a dynamic, living, balanced organic whole, or an organism.” The principle is similar to that behind the science of ecology – the study of the relationships between organisms – and, in fact, is now the basis of a related field which applies the concept to farming, called agroecology.

At the heart of the organic orientation is a reverence for the soil itself – the idea that it must be handled with care in order to continue to produce a nutrition-rich bounty, rather than being abused, exploited and worn out as it now is by the “agribusiness” culture that has largely replaced the old-fashioned family farm. It’s why the goals of The Rodale Institute of Kutztown, Pa., which has been a leading force in promoting and researching regenerative agriculture, include increasing public awareness “that healthy food can only be obtained from healthy soil” and making soil quality “as important to the public as air and water quality.”

In essence, the primary mission of organic farming is to save the soil that produces the food we depend on for our very survival. Those who profit from the use of agricultural chemicals like to claim that they’re the ones responsible for our food supply’s preservation and abundance. This was asserted several years ago in the network news magazine show 20/20 by celebrity correspondent John Stossel. His premise that organic produce is no safer than conventional varieties, and may even be more hazardous, was later shown to be based on fraudulent test results, resulting in an on-air apology by Stossel.

What’s actually happening is the creation of chemically addicted soil which is slowly but surely poisoning the planet from the ground up. Oft-repeated assertions that organic growing methods are “not a viable option” because they can’t compete with conventional, chemical-based agriculture in terms of yields simply don’t jibe with the actual results achieved by organic farmers – or by experimental facilities like the Rodale Institute. In 1989, for instance, the National Research Council reported that the average yields of eight organic farms it studied were generally equal to or better than those of surrounding conventional farms – without the cost (both monetary and environmental) of synthetic chemicals. In addition, organic crops have been found to be far more resilient in their ability to withstand the effects of drought and bad weather conditions.

What the organic farmer strives to do is to eliminate the bad habits that have proven so injurious to the land and its occupants, and restore the healthy ones engaged in by our forefathers (as well as introducing some newer, more sophisticated interpretations of their ideas). One of the techniques used to achieve this is crop rotation. According to the Rodale Institute’s farm manager, Jeff Moyer, the lack of diversity in crop cultivation seen on conventional farms is “not healthy and can’t be sustained naturally. In organic agriculture, by contrast, we’re not just trying to grow a crop, we’re trying to grow soil.” And soil, much like people, can be “rehabilitated,” Moyer says -- eventually regenerating itself if allowed to grow a variety of crops and kept free of chemicals. The idea behind soil rehabilitation is that “the soil wants to be covered with something green and growing all the time,” says Moyer. “If you have a little garden patch and you do nothing with it, it’s going to get covered with weeds.”