How Beneficial Are Organic Foods?

How beneficial are organic foods?

What is organic? Something that is organic is natural and produced without the use of genetically modified organisms. Research shows that consuming organic foods is healthier for ones body. Consuming only organic foods is a simple way to restore, maintain or improve ones health by reducing the level of toxin intake and increasing the level of nutrients in ones body. Farmers use pesticides on their crops to keep bugs and insects away. Pesticides enable farmers to grow apples without worms, green beans without bug bites scarring them and ears of sweet corn without bugs in the kernels (Goldberg, 2005). This is good for the farmer, but what about the humans consuming that food? It is best to find organic products and only consume them. People choose to buy organic food not only because it healthier, but also it is fresher and tastes better. Some even say that eating organic products gives them more energy.

Organic farming became popular around the early 1900's because farmers were looking for a healthier approach to farming. The organic approach emphasized all natural products for soil, plants and animals. Animals feed on plants and in order for the animals to be considered organic they must only consume organic plants. The soil the plants grow on must be organic as well in order for the plants to be considered organic. Stores are even required to shelve organic products in an area where the products will not be exposed to excess water runoff from nonorganic foods because it can contaminate organic items with pesticide residue (Consumer Reports, 2006). For a product to be considered organic everything must be natural, thus making it very difficult to be an organic farmer. It takes extra work, careful attention, and it is also more costly. It costs a lot more to grow everything without the use of pesticides, as pesticides do serve a purpose. Pesticides keep away bugs and insects from getting to the produce and eating away at it. Without the use of pesticides farmers run a bigger risk of losing a good majority of their crops to bugs and insects. However, using these pesticides and toxins creates a potential danger to the humans consuming these products.

There are many different types of pesticides and chemicals that are used that can harm the human body. Hormones are injected in animals to help them get fat. Consumer Reports states "Studies show that synthetic growth hormones may be carcinogenic and that exposure to them may be linked to the precocious onset of puberty in girls" (2006). There also antibiotics used to help speed up the growth of animals and help protect the animal from potential health issues from being cooped up so closely with other animals. Humans that consume these antibiotics run the risk of increasing resistance to other drugs and medicine. Chickens may consume heavy metals, or even arsenic if not raised right. Animals feet are sometimes dipped in motor oil as a treatment for an ailment called scary leg mite (Consumer Reports, 2006). Humans should not be consuming things like motor oil, arsenic, heavy metals, pesticide sprays, and hormones as long as one can prevent it.

By eating an apple that is not organic is does not mean that one is swallowing a great amount of pesticide. The amount of toxins in one apple is small, but is still poison consumed. One can simply wash the apple but it does not remove the pesticides and other harmful toxins away completely. What about eating a steak? If a cow is raised in an environment surrounded by toxins then the cow ingests the toxins. When the human eats a piece of meat from the cow, the human ingests those toxins the cow was subjected to. For every product consumed that is not organic, one consumes a tiny bit of toxins and chemicals that certainly are not good for the body. Over time, those small amounts of toxins become harmful and potentially dangerous to ones health. Eating organic products reduces the amount of toxin intake and results a healthier body. Many people across the world are now making an effort to be conscious of what they consume and the organic food industry is growing rapidly.

It was not until the 1970's that organic farming really began to boom. Global movements became popular and people became more concerned with the environment than ever. Around the 1980's consumers began to pressure the government to step in and create regulations for organic farmers. Certification standards were placed on organic foods. By 1990 organic food was on the retail market and in grocery stores everywhere (Goldberg, 2005). Today consumers have become more concerned about the quality of food, their environment and their bodies and organic food is becoming something that is in every household. Consumer Reports (2006) states, "During the past decade, U.S. organic sales have grown 20 percent or more annually. Nearly two- thirds of U.S. consumers bought organic foods and beverages in 2005, up from about half in 2004" (CR, 2006). Local farmers markets are not the only ones to have organic products on their shelves anymore. Specialty grocers such as Whole Foods, Sprouts and Trader Joes, are popping up in every major city and organic foods are now being sold in traditional supermarket chains. Below is a graph showing where the organic consumer shops. 50% of consumers who buy organic products purchase them from their local supermarket chains (OTA, 2003).

Organic food has become increasingly popular over the last decade around the world. Two percent of all food and beverage products sold in the United States are organic and that number looks only to expand (Goldberg, 2005). By the year 2010 Germany hopes to increase to 10% of organic consumption. Europe and Asia have been passing laws to require that foods that are genetically altered be labeled so (Peterson, 2003).

Organic farming is on the rise globally, as are sales of organic foods and organic clothing, and if the current trends are predictors of future happenings, we can expect this to continue. This also is a very good thing. It helps to reduce the amount of harmful substances in our environment, and it gives people choices (Speer, 2005).

Organic products are not as widespread due to the expense attached to it. Organic products can be more expensive than buying products that are not all natural.

Foods that are grown using pesticides are easier and less expensive to mass-produce. Although more than a dozen frequently used pesticides have banned since 1996 (CR, 2006) farmers still use these chemicals to assist in growing their crops. It is more difficult to grow organically, making it more expensive to buy. In 2003 a Georgia chicken producer persuaded his states congressional legislators to pass an absurd bill. "The amendment stated that if the price