RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—There are many compelling reasons to buy organic food whenever you can—to keep harmful pesticides and fertilizers out of our food, air, water, and soil, for one. And then there's the fact that organic agriculture can mitigate global warming: It traps carbon in the soil instead of releasing it into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. However, when Rodale Inc. CEO Maria Rodale traveled the country to interview farmers, environmental health experts, and government officials for her new book, Organic Manifesto, she unearthed other important, if less obvious, upsides to choosing organic food. Supporting organic isn't just about protecting the environment; it involves economics, human health, and cutting government waste that costs taxpayers major bucks.
Here, five surprising reasons that you, your family, and our planet will be better off if we all buy organic whenever possible:
• Taxes will go down. Why are our taxes so high? One reason is that our tax dollars are subsidizing the chemical-agriculture industry, which artificially reduces the price of food while increasing our health and environmental problems (thus increasing the amount of money the government needs to spend on environmental cleanup and health care). Why do politicians perpetuate this problem? If people can buy cheap food, then they are more likely to keep on voting for them. Who gets rich? Chemical companies. Certainly, everyone wants food to be affordable for all. But wouldn't it be better to stop putting our money in chemical agriculture's pocket and spend it instead on better food?
• Organic can feed the world. Maybe you've seen biotech advertising campaigns insisting that we need genetically manipulated seeds in order to feed the world. But the truth is, organic-farming yields are actually higher than chemical-farming yields, according to a 2008 United Nations report. In fact, in years of drought (and many parts of the world are experiencing unprecedented droughts), plants raised using organic methods do much better because of the plants' stronger root systems, and because the living beneficial microorganisms in the soil act like a sponge, retaining more moisture for longer periods of time. Chemical agriculture kills off those organisms, by the way.
• Chemical farming kills jobs. Another perk of organic farming? Labor inputs are 15 percent higher, compared to chemical farms, writes Rodale in Organic Manifesto, which means the organic sector creates more jobs. Many farmers are talked into using agrichemicals because they're told it will make their jobs easier by saving labor—which means fewer farm jobs. But the fact of the matter is, the use of these chemicals is creating "superweeds" that are starting to outwit chemical pesticides.
• There's an experiment going on…and all of us are the guinea pigs. GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, have infiltrated every aspect of our food systems, without ever having been evaluated for their effects on human health. Now that some research is being done (in spite of aggressive tactics by agribusiness to prevent all testing), researchers are seeing signs that GMOs cause organ failure, digestive diseases, even accelerated aging. More studies need to be done to understand how GMOs affect human health, but in the meantime, buying organic is the best way to stop being used as a lab rat.
• You can still eat bananas. There are good reasons to seek out food that's grown locally—you support your local economy, you cut down on the fossil fuels needed to bring it to your table, you may even be able to talk to the grower find out how it was produced. But giving up, say, bananas or avocados because they can't be grown where you live is not a step many people want to take. Choose organic, though, and you shrink the carbon footprint of your favorite long-distance treat. "Numerous studies have shown that organic is much more critical when it comes to carbon than local," writes Rodale. That's because the production, shipping, and application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are among the most energy-intensive farming practices. Organic methods bypass all that and, as mentioned, keep greenhouse carbon out of the atmosphere. Organic AND local is the gold standard, but organic food has a smaller carbon footprint than its local but chemically grown counterpart.
So, what's a family to do?
The good news is you can vote with your dollar every time you purchase food, keeping harmful chemicals out of our food, air, soil, and water. Spend less money on overpackaged, overprocessed foods and invest in organic food that will nurture your family's health. Organic dried beans and whole grains are dirt-cheap to begin with. And by visiting LocalHarvest.org to find farmers in your area, you can find other organic deals by purchasing in bulk crops that are in season, and then preserving them for use during the winter, when out-of-season organic foods are more expensive.
Check out demandorganic.org for more information on buying organic.