Acceptance Must Come with a Side of Understanding.

Organic food and their inorganic counterparts are scattered across the news.  Thick skinned, inorganically grown bananas and fruits are said to be fine, while we are urged to eat organic lettuce and other delicate veggies.  We don't eat the skin of the banana so it makes sense when the FDA suggests the banana itself is safe from chemicals.  Also understood, lettuce, a veggie we consume in its entirety, should remain clean and unbathed in chemical solution for our own safety.  For me, organic isn't as much about what we end up eating on our produce; it's more about what we end up eating in our produce.  "You are what what you eat eats!" -Michael Pollen


Lets pretend, for a moment, that the ground is fertile, the air is clean, water is abundant, and food grows naturally from seeds deposited on the earth from animal droppings, wind distribution and fruit decay.  A long time ago, right?  Today, crops are grown mono culturally.  Seeds are more or less created through hybridization with the intent of producing higher yield crops with larger fruit in a shorter maturation time.  Plants are sprayed for bugs, the soil is treated for weeds, man and animal made fertilizers are then reintroduced and viola~  your super market is stocked with global produce.

Now, there is a big difference between the natural or organic growth cycle of a plant and mono agriculture; that isn't hard to accept.  So where does organic farming fit in?  Organic farming in America is an agricultural practice where mono culture growing methods are still used, but without spraying for insects and introducing chemicals to the soil.  In theory, clean water is used to water, insects are used to kill insects and crops are rotated so the soil is not depleted of nutrients; a middle ground between farm stead gardening and conventional agriculture.  The growing season is longer, the yield is less, the cost is more for a myriad of reasons, but the produce is of higher nutritional value.

It is easy to see and accept the fact 'chemicals are poisonous'.  As a society, we also accept a number of other chemical results:  seeds that are modified to withstand drought, temperature variance, and pests;  fruits and veggies that are sprayed with chemicals that kill or repel bugs;  soil that is sprayed with chemicals to keep water-drinking, nutrient-absorbing weeds from encroaching on intended crops.  This acceptance, though, must come with some understanding:  crops are watered and washed from rain which saturates the soil with residual chemicals;  plants then become the water, nutrients and chemicals found in the soil while creating the produce intended.   We, the people, then, visit our local markets, pick the fruit and ingest all the fruit itself has ingested whether we peel it or not.

Is it acceptable that plants grown without chemicals are a healthier choice?  You decide.  While you think, eat real food, drink plenty of water, give your vitamins their vitamins, and, as always, remember to wash your hands (especially after gardening).


Anna~