"We have not inherited the Earth from
our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children." -Lester  Brown 

The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing  pesticides in food. The food choices you make now will impact your child's health in the future.

 2. Prevent Soil Erosion 

The Soil Conservation Service estimates that more than 3 billion tons of topsoil are eroded from the  United States' croplands each year. That means soil is eroding seven
times faster than it is being built up naturally. Soil is the  foundation of the food chain in organic farming. But in conventional farming the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants  in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result, American farms are suffering from the worst soil erosion in  history.

 3. Protect Water Quality 

Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the planet. Despite its  importance, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates pesticides-some cancer causing-contaminate the  groundwater in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country's population.

 4. Save Energy 

American farms have changed drastically in the last three generations, from family-based small businesses  dependent on human energy to large-scale factory farms highly dependent on fossil fuels. Modern farming uses more petroleum  than any other single industry, consuming 12 percent of the country's total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce  synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the crops in the United States. Organic farming is still mainly based on  labor-intensive practices such as weeding by hand and using green manures and crop covers rather than synthetic fertilizers to  build up soil. Organic produce also tends to travel fewer miles from field to table.

 5. Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate

Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered long before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers that 60 percent of  all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides are carcinogenic. A 1987 National Academy of  Sciences report estimated that pesticides might cause and extra 1.4 million cancer cases among Americans over their lifetimes.  The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms, and can also be harmful to humans. In addition  to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defect, nerve damage and
genetic mutation. 

 6. Protect Farm Worker Health

A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a six times greater risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. In California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers have risen  an average of 14 percent a year since 1973, and doubled between 1975 and 1985. Field workers suffer the highest rates of  occupational illness in the state. Farm worker health also is a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticide use can be  poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are poisoned annually by pesticides.

 7. 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 of less than 100 acres. It's estimated that the United  States has lost more than 650,000 family farms in the past decade. And with the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicting that  half of this country's farm production will come from 1 percent of farms by the year 2000, organic farming could be one of the few  survival tactics left for family farms.

 8. Support A True Economy

Although organic foods might seem more expensive than conventional foods, conventional food  prices do not reflect hidden costs borne by taxpayers, including nearly $74 billion in federal subsidies in 1988. Other hidden  costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean-up, and environmental damage. Author Gary  Null says, "If you add in the real environmental and social costs of irrigation to a head of lettuce, its price can range between  $2 and $3."

 9. Promote Biodiversity

Mono-cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. While  this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in  natural minerals and nutrients. To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing amounts. Single crops  are also much more susceptible to pest, making farmers more reliant on pesticides. Despite a tenfold increase in the use of  pesticides between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects have doubles - partly because some insects have become  genetically resistant to certain pesticides.

 10. Organic Foods Taste Better

There's a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes-they taste better!  Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and, ultimately, our  palates.

 Organic Times, Spring 1991. Excerpted from an article by Sylvia Tawse,
Alfalfa's Markets, Boulder, CO.

Design by Vector-Interactive