Last night our family was having a discussion about why it’s important to eat organic food. My husband and I were talking about some of our concerns with buying produce and meats that are not organic. One of my 14-year old daughters said, “Well, why didn’t you tell us this a long time ago? If you’d told us about some of these issues we would have understood. Telling us it’s healthy means nothing!”
So, out of the mouths of babes (or should I say “out of the mouths of teenagers?”)! Long ago, my husband and I didn’t share our deepest reasons for eating organically because we didn’t want to frighten our girls. I don’t believe trying to make people (or children) change out of fear is the right way to approach any issue. Over the years, we’ve mentioned things like pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and feed, but not in a real graphic sense. What my daughter was telling us last night, though, was they need some “gory details” (teenager perspective) to understand why they should make sure what they eat is organic. Duly noted!
After our trip to California this past September, my girls saw first-hand what it looks like when fruits and vegetables are being bombarded with pesticide spray. They saw what the farm workers were being exposed to. And they now have a real image to hold in their minds as to how it looks for those beautiful fruits and vegetables to be dusted more than once a week with chemicals intended to keep the vegetation free from pests. So far, my girls do not have graphic images of what is being done to animals but, suffice it to say, they now understand more of the inhumane and harmful methods that are used to “manufacture” non-organic poultry and meat and “farm” fish.
In doing a little investigation on reasons for eating organically, I came across an article published in August 2009 by Maria Rodale, author of the upcoming book Organic Manifesto (due out in March 2010). I’m including a portion of the article below.
“What’s the first reason? The REAL reason we should eat organic foods? The real reason to eat organic food is that the thousands of chemicals used to grow chemical foods are causing horrific health and environmental problems. In my book (due out in March 2010) I discuss multiple well-documented studies from reliable sources showing that chemical pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and the GMO’s used in chemically based food production, are implicated in, if not causing, the following health problems: diabetes, obesity, cancer, autism, Parkinson’s disease, male sterility, genital deformities, female infertility, miscarriage, infant deformities, ADHD, hormonally caused gender confusion, asthma, allergies, accelerated aging, and smaller penises in boys, amphibians, and other wildlife.
I have also discovered (and reveal in my book) that the chemicals used to grow so-called “conventional food” are responsible for the majority of our climate-change problems, the majority of our water-pollution problems, the majority of our plant and insect disease problems, and the majority of our economic woes.
Sounds crazy, but it’s true. You’ll have to wait until the book comes out to find out the details. But in the meantime, for your sake, for your kid’s sake, and for the planet’s sake, keep on eating organic!”
To read the entire article, go to The Huffington Post.
There are others who have written their own “Top 10 Reasons to Eat Organically.” One of my favorites was written by Dr. Andrew Weil in 2005. You can go to Organic Consumers Organization to read his list in its entirety.
I believe the more we educate ourselves and our children about why eating organic food is important, the more we’ll see that this is a change that makes sense for the present and the future. Through educating ourselves, we learn and are able to then make decisions based on our response to the information rather than from a place of fear. Although I’m convinced eating organically is a must for me and my family, I ask you to do your own research and then sit with that information in order to come to a decision that is right for you and your family. That’s the best we can each do for ourselves and the ones we love.
