Organics - why bother! - Find Your Natural Groove

There’s a lot of debate around about organic food. It costs more money to purchase, it’s often harder to come by. Surely it just another thing for the Greenies and Hippies to bang on about and make the rest of us feel either angry or inadequate!

So here’s a couple of questions you could try answering

Which tastes better - organically grown food or conventionally grown food?
Which has more nutritional value - organically grown food or “normal” food?

There are a multitude of research papers out there and lots of folks have there own opinion, but honestly, the answer to both these questions is not that important to me!

To me, neither the taste nor the nutrient levels have ever really mattered that much. The reason I choose organic foods for my family is because of what they don’t have, not what they do.

When our Great Grandparents were around, their food was pretty much all “organic”. It was weeded by hand or by some now long rusted out “mechanical” weeding contraption most likely pulled along behind a horse which was conveniently depositing its manure along the way. It wasn’t forced to grow faster or bigger with fertilisers made out of petrochemicals. It had to fight with the weeds for it’s place and the farmers or our grandparents themselves got out there and weeded by hand. No dangerous herbicides and weedicides back then to leach into the soil or the produce itself.

Antibiotics weren’t given to the animals our Great Grandparents ate to stop them getting sick. Those animals didn’t live in feed pens or cages so close to each other that they couldn’t help but get diseases because they were all living on top of each others poo! They didn’t need antibiotics to stop the cows from getting mastitis because they were milked all year round twice a day with no opportunity for rest and recuperation. And they needed no synthetic hormones to make them grow bigger, faster and leaner or to give more milk in order to reach production targets.

I started buying organic food in 2006 and things have changed a lot since then. For one, it’s easier to get. Back then, it was usually the most unappealing looking stuff at the market and it was often twice the price of its shiner, bigger, prettier looking opposition. Things have changed quite a bit since then.

Here’s some other reasons for buying organic produce. I’m sure there are plenty more than this! Please feel free to add to this list in the comments below.

It’s far more sustainable
The animals are given a healthier and therefore happier life especially if pasture raised.
The manure produced on organic farms is a wonderful fertiliser instead of a potential environmental pollutant due to the high level of drugs and chemicals that are part of the waste product of a conventional feed lot.
It promotes healthier soils and and run off
It’s easier to find out where organic food was grown and therefore how many food miles it’s done!
It forces us to eat fresh with the seasons and to preserve when produce is plentiful.
It’s not been treated with radiation (often imported fruits, veg and dry goods are irradiated before coming into their destination county)
IT’S NOT GENETICALLY MODIFIED!!!!
The benefits to our long term health of eating a diet rich in organic foods far out way any extra cost or inconvenience.
The more we support our organic producers by purchasing their produce, the cheaper and more readily available it will become

And we haven’t mentioned anything about growing your own organic food if you can. Now there’s a way to keep costs down!

I found this wonderful little clip on The Organic Food Blog. It’s a bit of fun. Have a look!