Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

Organic vs. non-organic the battle continues

by Calvin Bledsoe

jcbledsoe@vwc.edu

Do you ever wonder why some of us suffer from headaches, cancer, tremors, depression, anxiety, poor memory, dermatitis, convulsions, indigestion, or stomach trouble? Scientists report that our diets may be the cause of our society’s depleting health. In a United Farm Workers of America report it was noted that “occupational exposure, particularly to pesticides, may explain the elevated risk of leukemia and brain cancer.”

So then why would anybody support or endorse food that has been saturated with chemicals, when they know how much harm they can cause to people who have worked around them?

Non-organic farms, using synthesized fertilizers, can lead to depletion of the soil, since they often do not replace trace mineral elements used by crops. This can result in fruits and vegetables that are significantly low in nutrition. This may be why corporations process foods and conserve them with preservatives.

We don’t want food with artificial chemicals that don’t compare to its original composition. Carcinogenic pesticide residues found in fruits and vegetables have the potential to cause long-term damage to the brain and central nervous system of developing children. Non-organic farms contaminate nearby water supplies and erode soil, destroying chance of natural plant life. Even industrialized farming threatens public health, not to mention livestock. They are exploiting animals by weakening their quality of life through mindless cruelty and dousing them in antibiotics and hormones. With no validation for these things, it makes you wonder why people continue to purchase these products.

Some give the argument that it is too expensive to eat organic. If you believe this argument, then maybe you should reassess the situation. Weigh the effects non-organic could have on your life and then figure out the financial statistics of living healthier. Everybody can eat healthy if we educate ourselves and become aware of all that is already in front of us.

Organic Food News Quarterly writer Shane Heaton reports, “Official household spending statistics in Australia and the U.K. reveal that the average family spends five times more on junk food, carry-out, alcohol, and tobacco than on fruits and vegetables.”

Between 1990 and 1997 organic food sales in the U.S. quadrupled but only represented less than one percent of the $440 billion food industry.

Americans statistically spend around 12 percent of our disposable income on food, which is the lowest of all industrialized countries in the world. To be health-concious we must stop endorsing the garbage in our diet and thrive directly off nature as we were intended to do. Organic food eliminates the problems caused by non-organic.

Our values are in the wrong place.