On this sunny cold afternoon, with a very cold night ahead, I am picking the last arugula from the unheated greenhouses, so calling an official end to the 2010 growing season (early in 2011!). With the ground frozen and blanketed with snow at this beginning of January, it is good to recall why we do (or should do) this organic thing,
courtesy of an old Whole Foods paper shopping bag that I kept for the rallying text:
- Protect Future Generations - Children receive four times more exposure than adults to cancer-causing pesticides in food.
- Prevent Soil Erosion - At least three billion tons of topsoil are eroded from crops lands in
North America each year, much of it due to conventional farming practices, which often ignore the health of the soil. - Humane Treatment of Animals - Free-range, pasture-based livestock farms ensure animal health and positively impact natural animal behaviour.
- Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate - Pesticides are toxins designed to kill living organisms. Organic foods are grown without these chemicals, protecting you, the consumer.
- Protect Farm Worker Health - Farmers and farm workers enjoy better health when they work in a pesticide-free environment.
- Save Energy – More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate, and harvest the crops.
- Help Small Farmers – Although more and more large-scale farms are making the conversion to organic practices, most organic farms are small, independently-owned and –operated family farms.
- Support A True Economy – Organic foods might seem expensive; however, your tax dollars pay for hazardous waste clean-up and environmental damage caused by conventional farming.
- Promote Biodiversity – Planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year increases farm production, but the lack of natural diversity of plant life has negatively affected soil quality.
- Flavour & Nourishment – Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil, producing nourished, & nourishing, plants. Conduct your own taste test!
Couldn’t agree more.
