You are what you eat
Why eat organic?
Because you are what you eat.
There are many excellent reasons to eat organic, and each one of them is reason enough on it's own.
The cost, you say... Hmm. That's where I run into trouble when making a case for eating organic, so I'll save it for last.
For me personally, the most compelling reason to eat organic is the outcome of a failed experiment. . .
The failed experiment
The experiment was carried out in order to determine what would be healthier: traditionally grown or organically grown vegetables. This experiment was carried out on endives. (Cichorium endivia)
Left to it's own devices, endive is a biennial plant - that means it grows a big rosette of leaves and a fat taproot in its first year, sleeps through the winter, and in the next year uses the food reserves from the root to produce leaves, flowers and seeds. Because the rosette is what we eat, this tends to be overlooked.
Two plots of land were prepared, each according to the rules of the method. Then endives were sown and grown. On the traditional plot artificial fertilizer was added and the plants were treated to avoid potential pests and diseases. On the organic plot the ground was kept covered and the plants grew.
Comparing these two methods of growth in one short experiment is not really fair, because organic gardening is all about improving the actual soil. Achieving well balanced soil takes a couple of years.
At the end of the summer, the plants were harvested and analyzed. The outcome was a bit of a disappointment for both sides, because there really wasn't that much difference. The traditional plants looked slightly more attractive, the organic plants were slightly sturdier (and contained the occasional snail). Analysis of a number of ingredients didn't show any significant difference either.
Ah well. Experiment failed. The plots were abandoned, although a few plants remained.
It wasn't till somebody went back in the following spring that the real difference became apparent:
you could see where the remaining traditional plants had been, there was still some dark, slimy residu rotting away. The organic plants, however, had grown into big, beautiful plants with hundreds of lovely sky-blue flowers.
Now that is part of the plant too - you can't see it, you can't measure it, but it is there. Call it life force, call it whatever you want. That is the difference between growing organic or growing traditionally. That is why I eat organic.
Better for you
Most research tends to show that this point is debatable - it seems difficult to prove scientifically that organically grown vegetables, for instance, provide better nutrition. I suppose traditional methods of measuring nutrients - so much nitrogen, so much calcium, so much Vitamin C - don't show significant differences.
Chemicals
What is easy to prove, is that there's a whole lot of unhealthy stuff you don't eat when you chose organic produce: transfats (very bad for you! here is why), residu of pesticides, artificial sweeteners, colorants, weird things like a "watery protein solution" of dubious origin, which is injected into chickenmeat here in Europe to make it heavier, chemical preservatives, residu of hormones and antibiotics in animal produce... the list is endless. And there is this extraordinary practice of exposing foodstuff to radiation in order to extend shelf life. Surely radiation kills cells?
Science reassures us that all this stuff isn't harmful when taken in small doses. This may or may not be true, but the dosage is the problem. That, and the fact that you don't know how all these substances interact. If a major part of your diet consists of processed food, you simply don't know how many chemicals enter your body, or what the combination of these chemicals might cause.
Grass fed beef
It's not just what you eat, it's what you're eating is eating as well. Whatever a steer eats will be there in your steak. A steer is a vegetarian, and it stands to reason that something will go wrong if you feed him ground sheep carcas just because it happens to be a cheap available source of protein.
Steers are supposed to eat grass, and feeding them corn won't do them much good, either.
There is a growing body of scientific evidence that grass fed beef really is healthier - a lot of information can be found on this website by California State University.
A quote:
There are a number of reports that show grass-fed beef products contain elevated concentrations of ?-carotene and a-tocopherol, increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a more desirable omega-3:omega-6 ratio, and increased levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), all substances reported to have favorable biological effects on human health.
Although the fact that cattle has been organically raised does not in itself guarantee a diet of grass exclusively, it does guarantee a diet that has been as natural as possible, and an absence of hormones, antibiotics and other unnatural substances. The same goes for pork, chicken and lamb.
And of course there's the animal welfare aspect of it: I eat meat, but by choosing meat from organically raised animals, at least I know they've had halfway decent life.
Expensive
Yes. It is expensive. Because I only ever go into the supermarket for things like trashbags and pantyhose, I'm rarely confronted with the difference in price for lettuce. So one morning (February 2006) I went to the supermarket to compare the price of four random articles from my Saturdaymorning weekly shop. To be honest I was a little shocked, I hadn't realised the difference was that big.
| super | organic | ||
| One cauliflower | 1,49 | 3,89 | |
| Mayonaise, 600 gr pot | 1,09 | 3,68 | |
| Coffee, 250 gr | 1,69 | 2,53 | |
| Apples, 1 kilo | 1,29 | 2,30 | |
| Total | 5,56 | 12,40 |
Hmmm.
Life is about making choices...