Why Choose Organic?

There is no more important single thing we can do to have a bigger impact on helping the planet and our bodies than choosing real organic foods.

Organic foods are produced without the use of chemicals, herbicides, fungicides, petroleum-, sewage- or sludge-based fertilizers or chemical pesticides. Organic food is not bio-engineered, genetically modified, nor is it irradiated. Poultry and Beef are fed only organic feed, are grazed on organically maintained pastures, and are not given antibiotics, hormones or animal by-products.

Until WWII, organic was the "conventional" practice as it was the most common way to farm. The use of synthetic chemicals and toxins won the battle away from home and were now touted to improve our lives here too. With this fanfare, it was well received and pushed through quickly. At that time, shocking to us now to think, but chemical poisons were even sprayed directly onto children to kill off bacteria! And some of us still remember walking behind the trucks spraying chemicals to kill off mosquitoes and other bugs around the neighborhood because it was so cool to see that puff of smoke come out. Conventional, the norm, changed to today's standard of using these chemicals readily.

Conventional farmers use millions of pounds of pesticides each year, much of which ends up in our drinking water and oceans. Pesticides and chemicals kill off living things - bugs and animals that may eat the food as well as parasites and microorganisms. Pesticides deplete the soil so more chemicals are needed to fertilize enabling the cycle to continue.

Pesticides are poisons. Most have the potential of causing cancer and are endocrine disrupters that mimic or interfere with our hormones. Pesticides cannot always be washed off the food, even with soap, as they are "ingested" in the plant through the roots and are actually in the body of the food.

Pesticides have a well documented and serious impact on our health. Among the many adverse effects, pesticides:

• compromise our liver's job of cleaning toxins from our body
• compromise each cell's ability to produce energy and do their respective jobs in our body
• compromise our nerves and their job of sending important messages in our body

In short, pesticides cause disease and death. That's their goal, to kill off the bugs and pests. But they are having serious impacts on the lives of humans and especially on our future, our very own children. This is particularly important in the amounts and combinations of these pesticides. Since most children are picky eaters, they will eat more of one thing meaning more of certain chemicals. The long-term effect of these pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and chemicals, and the effect of the 'cocktail' of pesticide combinations on growing children has not been completely studied but it's clearly impacting fertility, development, health, and longevity. Pesticides can cause birth defects, cancer, nerve damage, impact our immune system, and disrupt our hormonal balance.

More recent news suggests that conventional foods may help us keep unwanted weight on our bodies. We all know the liver's function is to clear our bodies of toxins. The latest research indicates that the toxic buildup burdens the liver's function to such an extent that it cannot do it's other important jobs - burn body fat! An impaired liver can therefore cause weight gain.

Organic farmers are leaders and innovators at protecting our environment while protecting the crops naturally. Organic farmers work with the natural ecosystem to improve the soil and deter pests. They rotate crops between fields and have diversity in their farms; while the conventional farmer limits crops and farming practices which depletes the soil's nutrients and leads to a real risk of crop damage from disease.

Organic farmers plant certain flowers and bushes to attract helpful insects who will then eat or deter pests that might otherwise eat the crops; conventional farms kill off insects and pests, helpful and hurtful to the farmer.

Organic farmers work with nature to replenish the soil, do not use toxic pesticides or fertilizers and maintain a biologically sustainable investment in our future. The organic farmer works to create and maintain healthful soil. Worms and microorganisms work to keep the soil strong. The soil feeds the plant. Therefore healthful soil creates food with more nutrition. True, conventional food is devoid of harmful bacteria and bugs, but it is also lower in nutritional value and has less flavor.

Chemicals deplete the top soil and cause soil erosion which in turn offers less nutrition to the plant which in turn creates less nutritious food for us. In addition, the chemicals and pesticides are killing off microorganisms. Many of these microorganisms are helpful and are actually healthful. Discoveries of helpful bacteria that turn into cures for disease are found in dirt regularly around the world. In killing off the good and bad organisms, we are creating new super-resistant bugs and strains of insects and pests that require even more powerful chemical pesticides to be killed.

Healthy plants are more disease resistant, are more drought resistant, create a better supply of food, create more nutritious food, and grow strong without chemical assistance. It all works together.

At home, our own yards can be maintained organically. Years ago, we would to play in the dirt, dirt that was free of harmful chemicals and loaded with helpful microorganisms. As children this set up our immune systems to be strong. Children were healthier. When our children run and play in the yard, we need to make sure that is a yard they can lie in safely and that runoff from our yard is not going to poison our planet and water supply.

Conventional farming overseas is even worse than in the U.S. since farmers can get away with more with relaxed environmental laws. In many countries, conventional farming is destroying the rainforest and causing the demise of plants and animals for the sake of one single kind of "cash" crop ki. Forests are plowed to make way for planting, soil is eroded, chemicals and poisons enter our water systems, animals lose their homes, toxins enter the delicate ecosystem.

And talk about doing our part to help curb global warming, conventional farming uses more fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are used to create pesticides and chemicals. They are used to transport them to the farm. Micro-organisms that would otherwise hold carbon are killed releasing carbons into the atmosphere. Once the soil is depleted of micro-organisms, the soil must be enriched with chemical fertilizers which again take fossil fuels in creation and transportation. Conventional farms are more automated and use more fossil fuels generally. They have an over-abundance of manure since they are not using that so that is another issue which must be removed with fossil fuels. Organic farming uses up to 60% less fossil fuel per unit of food.

What is Biodynamic? Biodynamic Demeter supervised farming meets all organic standards and takes them even further. This system was created in ancient times to create healthful soil to withstand the test of time. Biodynamic farming takes even more time and money and therefore things cost more, but what it gives us is a true harmony with our land. It works with the plants, animals, and the environment to promote healthy soil and healthy plants.

Choosing organic produce and biodynamic products supports local, generally smaller, organic farms and the families who work those farms. Paying organic farmers in other countries a fair wage by choosing Fair Trade products allows them to create strong communities, schools and help children and their families. In addition, and as you would guess, conventional farmers and the people that work in and around the fields (including the people that crop dust and spray the chemicals and pesticides) have a much higher risk of cancer than organic farmers.

Organic certification confirms a set of standards:

• farmland used to grow the produce must be free of chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers, etc) for at least three (3) years. During the three year period, they are considered "transitional" and before that they are simply conventional.
• there is a paper trail to make sure that product is indeed the organic product you expect.
• organic poultry and beef are raised on organic feed or organically maintained pastures
• organic cows and chickens cannot be given growth hormones, stimulants or antibiotics
• organic dairy cows, poultry and cattle must be treated humanely with
  o clean water,
  o a clean place to sleep,
  o access to the outdoors,
  o exercise, and
  o fresh air
• organic dairy pasteurization must meet hygienic standards
• dairy cows may not be sold for slaughter as beef
• beef is processed in a certified plant where organic cows are separated from conventional ones and the entire processing line must be cleaned to organic specifications for the organic ones
• no more than 5% of the ingredients (excluding water and salt) are conventional; or at least 95% of the product is organic as per the standards of certification
• organic products cannot use some organic and some conventional of the same ingredient

Chemical poisons are dangerous. The environmental impact is great today and sadly, they remain in the ecosystem for decades after use. When we look and see that organic foods are sometimes more than conventional, we need to remember the toll conventional foods are having upon our world and our future. Organic foods are actually less costly when we look at the money it takes to fix the problems created by conventional farming. And yes, EVERY choice, EVERY person, EVERY item counts as a vote in the right direction.

Understandably, organic can cost more than conventional, but remember that cheap is not food, cheap is a way to fill the belly that has expensive repercussions long-term upon our health and our planet. It's actually more expensive to produce cheap food, more energy is needed to create each calorie and the clean up of the mess made to our health and our environment is expensive. Instead choose organic whenever possible - particularly for those foods you feed yourself and family most. That will offer you the biggest impact on your own lives and is the best place to start.

Organic farming protects our water supply, our wild life, our families, and our future. Choosing organic foods is like voting to go back to a more natural and safer way of breathing, eating, and living. It's a vote for our health today, our children's current and future health, our environment, animals, and our planet.

Flowers - Show you Really Care this Valentine's Day

I always thought it was so cute when my baby put his little face into a big flower and inhaled with an audible sniff. Then I started wondering as I watched, what was on the flower that he was touching and breathing?

A heavy dousing of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, growth hormones, fungicides and pesticides are used on conventional flowers to be cut for our enjoyment. When we touch that flower, we get those poisons on our skin which then penetrate into our body. As our children put their hands to their mouths, those pesticides are even more easily ingested into their small growing bodies. Yet there my precious boy was, nose deep in that gorgeous flower. That simple act that seemed so cute, was not. When we smell the lovely perfume of a flower, we are also inhaling toxins.

Even worse, our purchase has a devastating impact on our environment and upon the people who work in green houses and outside on the flower farms. Thanks to our purchase, they do have a job, that's true. But the workers, mostly women, tend to be sorely underpaid and work in a dangerous environment. The flowers can be sprayed while workers, with no protective gear, do their jobs or the workers may be forced to go back to the fields while the pesticides are still wet on the flowers, without time for them to dry or dissipate. The chemicals used are intensified in green houses where the fumes (and people) are trapped. The pesticides get in her hair, on her clothes, on her hands, and are even inhaled directly into her lungs and organs. Studies show that flower workers are exposed to 60 times the "safe" standard for dangerous pesticides and chemicals. All those chemicals are then brought home on her clothes and into the lives and bodies of her children and loved ones who run to hug her upon her return from work.
(pictures courtesy Jimma Times and Discover Channel, both linked below.)

Even the workers who prune and pack the flowers for shipment are at risk as they absorb the chemicals in their skin and lungs since most work without gloves or masks.

While U.S. grown flowers use very strong chemicals too, the imported flower farms can use unregistered chemicals otherwise banned in the U.S. Many of these chemicals are listed as "category 1" and include the most hazardous of chemicals including methyl bromide and DDT. Birth defects, childhood disease, cancers and other serious illness are now rampant in these communities.

These toxic pesticides drain into neighboring forests and waters, impacting our planet and our future and depleting our ozone layer.

Studies have found over 50% more pesticides on flowers than the allowable limit on our fruits and vegetables; and we are putting those to our faces and the faces of our children!

Roses were found to contain 1000 times more cancer-causing pesticides than food!

The flower industry is big business and the stakes are high. If insects are found in the cargo upon entry to the U.S., the entire shipment may be destroyed. Strong pesticides lessen the risk of loss of revenue. But good for business does not always mean good for planet and people. Luckily, we have choices. Show your flower power by choosing eco-friendly flowers so you and your lucky recipient can really stop and smell the roses.

Organic, Sustainable, Fair-Trade Flowers:

• are the same price as conventional flowers

• are safer for flower farm workers and their families

• lessen the pesticides and toxic chemicals released into our environment
  
  
• allow you and your loved ones to safely touch, admire, sniff, and smell
  
  
• is a gift that doubly and deeply shows you care about the person and our planet
  
  
• are sent in recyclable gift boxes printed with vegetable-based inks and tissue paper made of chlorine-free post-consumer material
  
  
• smell better than conventional flowers
  
  
• last longer than conventional flowers (when taken care of properly)
  
  
• are the environmentally responsible choice
  
  
• help support local organic farming communities which pay better wages and help build schools to create a strong foundation for a healthy future for their children
  
  
• encourage more organic and sustainable flower farms - every flower counts. Help change the world one beautiful flower at a time!

Get your Valentine's flowers set up now, just pick the day of delivery and you'll be the organized hero!

I've used Organic Bouquet for years and appreciate their quality, prices, selection, customer service, and attention to detail. Organic Bouquet recently partnered with The Climate Trust to initiate a carbon offset program that mitigates greenhouse gases generated from shipping your flowers. Each time you purchase a bouquet, the amount of carbon emissions from that shipment is offset by rolling funds into the Truck Stop Electrification Program — a program which reduces wasteful diesel emissions at truck stops by creating low cost, electrical alternatives for truckers to power heating, air conditioning and appliances. The Climate Trust estimates this program will remove nearly 90,000 metric tons of CO2 over the next 16 years, the equivalent of taking 16,000 cars off the road or planting 180,000 trees! By offering a cleaner and cheaper alternative to diesel idling, the project will also save truckers an estimated 10 million gallons of fuel!

Learn More:

• Roses May Contain Risky Levels of Pesticides, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News
• Dangerous Beauty: Flower Farms May Threaten Workers & The Environment, The Environmental Magazine
• Poisoned Petals, Environmental Working Group
  
• Flowers: Love and Pesticides?, Botany Global
• Why Buy Organic Flowers, Organic Consumers Association
• Occupational Health: An Ugly Picture for Flower Workers and Their Children, Environmental Health
  
• Would a Rose Not Smell as Sweet?, Environmental Health Perspectives
• Ethiopia: Cut flower Bonanza: At What Cost?, Jimma Times
• Colombian flower growers struggle to cut pesticide use, Napa Valley Register
• Many Roses Coated in Chemicals, Discover Channel Associated Press
  

If you find my blog helpful, please use the links here to help me offset costs and allow me to continue to research and post. I only link to companies and products that I have researched and use myself. Thank you so much for using the links to Organic Bouquet to do your shopping for eco-friendly flowers. It is a company I believe in and I'm proud to support them.

Chocolates - Be Thoughtful on Valentine's and Every Day

Cacao is a lucrative crop for the big companies and harvested by small communities that have very little and need the work. Because of that, they have no trouble clearing acres of rainforest or seriously trimming the upper trees to grow cacao just so they can feed their family on the meager wage they receive from the big companies. As you can imagine, the birds and animals living in that area lose a home and many die in this process. This not good for the future of our planet (don't get me started on carbon emissions that occur when trees die, and how we lose the carbon eaters - the trees - when we cut them down.)

Ironically, full-sun cacao trees are actually more susceptible to disease and insects (well, the birds left) so harmful chemical pesticides must be used, and of course those drain into the adjacent rainforest nearby. Some of these chemicals do end up in the resulting chocolate that we consume as well.

Since it's all about the money-making crop, conditions for workers are not safe. Their wage is well under the poverty level. Even more shocking, slave labor is sadly not uncommon. The Ivory Coast (where most cocoa is grown) is notorious for using children slaves working in uncomfortable conditions under the hot sun harvesting chocolate for yes, even U.S. owned companies. According to Treehugger: (linked below and picture courtesy)

International Labor Rights Fund filed suit against Nestlé in Federal District Court on behalf of a class of children who were trafficked from Mali into the Ivory Coast and forced to work twelve to fourteen hours a day with no pay, little food and sleep, and frequent beatings. What was Nestlé's response to court questioning? "We are only buyers of a product.”

Fair-trade chocolate offers the workers a fair wage so they don't need to destroy forest. A fair wage allows communities to flourish with schools, clean water, and food. Shade Grown and Bird Friendly is not just for coffee, look for that in chocolate too. This means that the upper trees are trimmed very little allowing the canopy for nesting birds and other wildlife. Just 50 of us buying one bar of Fair Trade Chocolate each week instead of other chocolates will help maintain an acre of wild lush forest and jungle.

In our family, if it's not organic or fair trade, we just can't enjoy it. It is easy to pass on the Hershey's kiss and snack bar at the bank counter when you know what's behind it and what you are saying you support by taking one. Even my kids don't ask for one because they have a deeper understanding and appreciation for how one little motion, our act, has an impact on the lives of others and our planet. Well, maybe they don't have a true understanding but they know it's not something we do and that we make choices like that to better the planet and that's good enough for me!

We all know that chocolate, dark chocolate, contains three times the potent (flavanoids) antioxidants that fight aging and disease than that of green tea and twice that of red wine. Plus chocolate helps calm stress by relaxing blood vessels and improving blood flow. It makes us feel good since chocolate contains phenylethylamines. Fair Trade Organic Chocolate supports your health, our environment, the lives of others, and makes us feel even better.

Resources:
Chocolate to Save Forests?, National Geographic
The Bitter Truth about Chocolate, Treehugger
Chocolate Buying Guide, The Green Guide