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Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 09:16:50 -0500
Subject: Why buy organic? Please Post
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From: "Tony Del Plato" <[log in to unmask]> (by way of Debbie Ortman
<[log in to unmask]>)
Subject: Why buy organic? Please Post
Date: Wed, May 10, 2000, 6:31 AM

From Urban Organics, Vancouver BC    http://www.urbanorganics.com/

WHY BUY ORGANIC?
---------------
When you purchase organic food, you are using the power of your dollar to
sustain life affirming farm practices, help save our environment, and do
something good for yourself both in better health and better flavor in your
food.

1. PROTECT GENERATIONS

"We have not inherited the earth from our fathers - we are borrowing it from
our Children" =AD Lester Brown

The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at
least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. Food choices you
make now will impact your child's future health.

2. PREVENT SOIL EROSION

The Soil Conservation Service estimates more than 3 billion tons of topsoil
are eroded from North American croplands each year. That means soil erodes
seven times faster than it's built up naturally.

Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. However, in
conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants
in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result
North American farms are suffering from the worst soil erosion in history.

3. PROTECT WATER QUALITY

Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the
planet. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates pesticides =ADso=
me
cancer causing- contaminate the ground water in 38 States, polluting the
primary source of drinking water for more than half the country's
population.

4. SAVE ENERGY

Farms have changed drastically in the last three generations, from
family-based small businesses dependent on human energy to large-scale
factory farms.

Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming
12 percent of the country=92s total energy supply. More energy is now used t=
o
produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the
crops in the North America.

Organic farming is still based on labor-intensive practices such as hand
weeding and green manure and crop covers instead of synthetic fertilizers to
support soil.

5. KEEP CHEMICALS OFF YOUR PLATE

Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered long before
extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had
been established. Now the EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90
percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides carcinogenic. A
1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that might cause an extra
4-million cancer cases among North Americans. The bottom line is that
pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can also harm
humans. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defects
nerve damage and genetic mutations.

6. PROTECT FARM WORKERS

A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides
had six times more risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. In
California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers has risen an
average of 14 percent a year since 1973 and doubled between 1975 and 1985
Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational-illness in the state.
Farm worker health is also a serious problem in developing nations where
pesticide use can be poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are
poisoned annually by pesticides.

7. HELP SMALL FARMERS

Although more and more large-scale farms are making the conversion to
organic practices, most organic farms are small, independently owned family
farms of fewer than 100 acres.

It's estimated that North America has lost more than 650,000 family farms in
the past decade. And with the Department of Agriculture predicting that half
of the country=92s farm production will come from 1 percent of farms by the
year 2000, organic farming could be one of the few survival tactics left for
family farms.

8. SUPPORT A TRUE ECONOMY

Although organic foods might seem more expensive than conventional foods,
conventional food prices don=92t reflect hidden costs borne by taxpayers.
Including nearly $74 billion in federal subsidies in 1988. Other hidden
costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and
cleanup, and environmental and social costs of irrigation to a head of
lettuce, its price would range between $2 and $3.

9. PROMOTE BIODIVERSITY

Mono cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same
crop year after year. While this approach tripled farm production between
1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil
lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. To replace the nutrients,
chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing amounts.

Single crops are also much more susceptible to pests making farmers more
reliant on pesticides between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects have
doubled =AD partly because some insects have become genetically resistant to
some pesticides.

10. TASTE BETTER FLAVOR

There's a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes =AD
they taste better. Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil,
which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and ultimately our
palates. It tastes great.

We believe foods grown in a nutrient rich soil and picked fresh have a
richer flavor than foods grown in a chemical based soil and shipped to your
local market. Try it and I'm sure you'll agree!