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Why Eat Organic | Why Eat Organic
But let's start with what happens in your mouth - taste. Organic food has flavor! You will enjoy what you are eating, instead of just going through the motions of eating your fruits and vegetables, like a dutiful little boy or girl. Some foods that you thought you did not like, you will find are tasty and satisfying for the first time, or for the first time in a long time. With organics a new world of pleasure and appreciation opens up to you! Many today cannot taste and appreciate healthy food because of taste buds desensitized from eating denatured prepared foods that have a high content of unnatural salt plus artificial stimulants and ingredients. These include products made with white sugar, white flour, artificial colors and flavors, and appetite stimulants like MSG. To compound things, there is a tendency to reach for these nutritionally-challenged prepared foods because conventionally-raised fruits, vegetables and animal products are not very appealing in comparison or satisfying when consumed.
Eating denatured prepared foods that do not satisfy the body's need for nutrition leads to overeating and undernourishment. What often follows is fad diets, weight loss and gain (yo-yoing), guilt feelings with psychic and physical damage. By learning to enjoy good, simple, clean, and wholesome foods, the guilt-laden dietary noose and unwanted pounds can be shed while establishing better health. There is a better way. You can win on all counts. Does organic food cost more? Yes and no. Yes, organically-grown foods are generally higher in price, but you are getting far more for your money when you eat organically. The food tastes better, because it is better. It is more nutritious and satisfying. You can eat less, you will waste less (placing greater value on it), and your body will respond positively to the better nutrition. What is your health worth? You can start weaning yourself off of costly junk and restaurant foods. In the long run, it costs far less to eat organic, wholesome food. So, it is up to you. You can live (and die) expensively at the bottom, or inexpensively at the top. If you would but try these things, if you have not, you would prove them for yourself. However, for those who are not convinced, and "want the facts," we can give you but a sampling of what more there is to educate and motivate you to do what is right. It is your health and life that are on the line. (There is more at stake, but let's start with your direct, personal interests.) It is not true that "what you don't know won't kill you." If someone were to slip some strychnine into your drink, it could kill you. This is especially true if you do not see the person doing it and go on drinking as if nothing harmful is in your drink. The same principle applies to all the food you eat, if you are not eating organically. You, and especially your children, are being poisoned by conventionally-grown foods. The only reason you don't think so is because you do not see someone poisoning your food and water. I guarantee that you would not let me come in your house and spray your foods with chemicals before you prepared a meal. So why should you let those who grow your foods do that to you?
Listen to this: An Italian study estimated that those who eat non-organic produce ingest approximately two kilos of chemicals and pesticides yearly! The average Canadian's body is likely to contain at least 500 synthetic chemicals including persistent organic pollutants or POPs (the most persistent and feared group of pesticides known, including DDT, which are being used to grow the food you eat, if you are not eating organically). DNA mutation effects are ten fold when chemical pollutants are passed from mother to fetus. EPA and USDA reports show that by the time the average child is one year old, the infant will have received the acceptable lifetime dose of eight pesticides from just 20 commonly eaten foods. The medical journal, The Lancet, reports that people with high blood levels of pesticides are far more likely to develop genetic mutations linked with cancer. In the age group 35 to 64, cancer is the number one killer in Canada. It is estimated that up to 80% of cancer is caused by environmental factors. (Cancer has become far more common than it was before the advent of chemical farming. Anyone over 50 knows this firsthand.) "We are highly appalled by the genetic effects of radiation ... How then could we be indifferent to the same effect from farm chemicals used freely in our environment?" Rachael Carson - Author of Silent Spring Why expose yourself to more harm than is necessary? Even if you eat organically, which is the best thing you could do for yourself and those you love, you are still being exposed to the evil effects of modern agricultural practices. It is like second-hand smoke. If you eat conventional foods you are not only harming yourself, but others too. Why contribute to poisoning your neighbors and the world by supporting the conventional agricultural system? 
Toxic chemicals, much of them coming from conventional agriculture, are contaminating groundwater on every inhabited continent, endangering the world's most valuable supplies of freshwater. (See our water solutions.) If you are trusting government guidelines for pesticide/herbicide use to keep you safe while you eat chemically-grown foods, you should know that there is no allowance made in government standards for the potential toxicity of the chemicals used in agriculture when they are combined, which can amplify toxicity up to a 1000 times! Government toxicity tests also look only for short-term effects, but ignore the often more serious long-term, low-level exposure effects that include cancer, immune suppression, leukemia, Parkinson's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, neurological problems, and reproductive disorders, to name but a few.
For a real-life example of the chemical soup that goes into growing the foods many eat today without a second thought, did you know that the average non-organic apple is exposed to as many as 37 separate pesticide applications? This changes the old adage, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," to, "An apple a day gives the doctor his pay." Sadly, everyone pays for the poor health of society. And did you know that California strawberries have 234 lbs per acre of pesticides applied to them every year?! In recent testing there were 40 pesticides found in strawberries including: 2,4-D, Acephate, Anilazine, Azinphos Methyl, Benomyl, BHC, Bifenthrin, Captan, Carbaryl, Chlordane, Chlorothalonil, Chlorpyrifos, DCPA, DDT, DDVP (Dichlorvos), Diazinon, Dicofol, Dieldrin, Dimethoate, Diphenylamine (DPA), Endosulfans, Esfenvalerate, Fenpropathrin, Folpet, Heptachlor, Iprodione, Malathion, Metalaxyl, Methamidophos, Methidathion, Methomyl, Myclobutanil, Oxamyl, Parathion-methyl, Piperonyl butoxide, Propargite, Thiabendazole, Triadimefon, Vinclozolin. (Alive Magazine, 2003) 
Harvest Haven strawberries have NO pesticides, NO herbicides, and NO chemical fertilizers. Just taste them! You won't believe the difference; or will you? Would you truly consider the above-listed 40 compounds a recipe for delicious? Some protest and say, "Oh yes, but without chemicals we could not grow enough food to feed the world." The chemical companies would like you to believe that. But how well have pesticides, for example, worked at increasing the food supply since being introduced to farmers on a large scale in the late 1940's? Crop Losses Due to Pest Damage for US: To all of these troubles, add the GMO (genetically modified organisms) health issue. Nobody has any idea of the long-term effects of GMOs on human health; however, the preliminary data already gives many serious warnings. Some scientists have lost their careers bringing these things to light and protesting the use of GMOs. Roughly 75% of processed foods contain GMOs. The production of these unlabeled "Frankenfoods" is a massive experiment, without rules or morals, using the general public as guinea pigs. Many countries in Europe and Asia have completely banned GMO's. Recently in India, sheep and goats eating genetic crops (cotton, which they have traditionally foraged without problems in the past) died en masse. In North America scientists have discovered that a type of GMO corn is reactivating herbicides inside your body, which is obviously not a good thing! (As an aside, by consuming GMOs, you are possibly committing cannibalism without knowing it.) GMOs are banned in organic agriculture. Harvest Haven never uses them nor do we sell any food grown with them. Besides directly benefiting your own health and pleasure in life, organics has a much wider impact on the environment and community, which is important for your welfare and that of your children and grandchildren (or parents and grandparents!). It comes down to whether we will poison not only ourselves, but others and our planet into oblivion. For example, from 2002-2004 four different class action lawsuits were filed against Dole, Chiquita, Del Monte, Occidental Chemical, DOW Agro Sciences, and Shell by Nicaraguan banana plantation workers, for the use of banned pesticides that caused sterility, miscarriage, birth deformities, and a wide variety of cancers. Eating organically also means that you are not indirectly responsible for the mistreatment of animals (especially with the animal husbandry practices at Harvest Haven, and those foods we sell, which we screen for proper compliance). Factory farms are a whole other subject. If you are not aware of what is happening in this arena, you should be. In summation, organic means: Food tastes good. It nourishes you instead of kills you. (According to a 1993 study in the Journal of Applied Nutrition, organic food had between 60% to 178% higher levels of certain essential nutrients and minerals than conventional produce.)
It supports a way of life that does not destroy the environment. It supports agriculture that does not hurt farmers, farm workers, or animals. You get all of this for less than the cost of prepared foods; it is also much better for you, your children, and everything and everyone involved in the farming process! At Harvest Haven we offer the largest selection of organic groceries in the area, and strive to offer you the best in freshness and quality. Visit us, taste the difference, get well, and support something that is good for everyone! Though there are many such websites, here is a rather comprehensive site with many other links on this important subject: http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/health.html Also, for an entertaining and educational film on this subject, watch Store Wars. Research by Mark Benson |
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There are many good reasons to eat organic vs. conventional produce
and foodstuffs. Organic foods contain more flavor and nutrition.
By choosing these, you will avoid feeding yourself and your kids
produce and foods laden with chemicals, known carcinogens, and artificial
stimulants.
At the same time, you will be supporting farmers who try to do things
right, for your benefit and that of the environment, which ultimately
supports all life.
