SO WHY BUY ORGANIC?
TASTE:
Ever thought to yourself “food doesn’t taste the way it used to!”. Well you are right, the fact is that it doesn’t taste like it used to. Modern growing practices combined with the use of hybrid varieties selected for long shelf life and easy transport have led to a tough skinned, tough textured, tasteless product. You will find that organically grown vegetables have the taste you remember, and you will not need to smother them with salt, butter and sauces to make them palatable.
HEALTH:
Most people think that the main objection to conventionally grown produce is the use of pesticides. This is only a small part of the picture. The practice of fertilising by force feeding plants chemical salts through the tap root causes a swollen overblown vegetable that is mainly salt and water with poorly formed proteins, and hence very little food value. They may look good but they are basically a sick vegetable, very prone to attack by disease and pests. Add onto this the pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, colours, waxes, preservatives, gases etc and you do not have a very wholesome product. In choosing organic, you not only get a vegetable that is free from toxic chemicals, but one with from a healthy plant, with maximum life force and energy value. Second in importance to buying organic is choosing locally grown, in-season produce, thereby insuring that your food is perfectly balanced for the conditions in which you are living.
ENVIRONMENT:
Enough has been written about problems of land degradation and salinity facing the farmers today that we don’t have to go into that here. Add to these problems the fact that 40% of the pollution of our rivers and waterways is cause by conventional farming practice and you have a strong case for organics. By buying organic you are supporting framers who are caring their land in such a way that after 10 to 20 years it will be richer and more fertile than it is today. Notably, many conventional farmers who have treated their land gently are now able to convert to organic growing. Organics and Biodynamics are not “alternative” farming. They must become the mainstream farming of the future if there is to be any quality of life for people, and the earth.
WHAT IS ORGANIC?
Organic simply means that no chemicals of any kind are used. The crops are fertilised by composts and organic manures, and pests are controlled by crop rotation, companion planting, developing predators etc. Certified organic farming requires a farmer to go through a 3 year “in-conversion” process during which the land is transformed over to organic farming practices. Once certification has been gained through a range of audits, soil and residue testing, the farmer is required to maintain stringent records for growing and sales, and is subject to annual audits and spot checks.
WHAT IS BIODYNAMIC?
This is a very sophisticated method of farming developed by Rudolf Steiner in the 1920’s and is suitable for broad-acre farming as well as small gardens. In addition to the techniques used in organic growing, biodynamics plants with moon cycles and uses certain specially made homeopathic type sprays to increase soil fertility and control the amount of sunlight reaching the leaf.
POLITICS:
…….this is a very important and powerful area, probably too large a section to go into now – but if Adam Fowler will have me back for another article I will tell you about politics, conventional farming and organics……
So, I hope this very short blog about buying organic has given you further insight into why organic is better in so many ways!
Would you like to have access to fantastic, fresh, vital organic fruit, vegetables, dry goods, drinks, diary (including raw milk), bread, grass fed hormone free black angus beef and more? I can deliver directly to your door each Wednesday! To register please visit my website: www.organicbox.com.au
For more information on health and organics please click on the Newsletter Archives on my page as there is a host of information available there…
In Health and Vitality,
Vanessa
