organic

Organic food is more nutritious than its chemically treated counterpart. Choose organic to keep toxic chemicals out of your water, soil, and air—and out of your body.

It sometimes seems easier to define “organic” in terms of what it isn’t, rather than what it is. For example, the USDA Organic seal guarantees that a food product was grown or raised without the use of chemical herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, sewage sludge, and genetically modified organisms in the growing and raising of food and fibers. Organically raised animals must have access to the outdoors, and farmers can’t routinely feed antibiotics or harmful drugs to livestock. They also can’t feed the animals grain derived from genetically modified (GMO) crops, or crops grown using synthetic chemicals. Also, certified organic food isn’t blasted with radiation to kill pathogens, which critics say is used to mask unsanitary conditions at food-processing plants.

The chemical methods banned from organic growing are known to cause problems for people and the environment:

1. Synthetic chemicals and fertilizers poison groundwater, streams, rivers, and oceans. Pesticides have been linked to all sorts of health problems for humans, from birth defects and Parkinson’s disease to hormone disruption and cancer.

2. The widespread use of antibiotics in the factory-farm industry is blamed for an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which means antibiotics might not work when we’re sick and need them.

4. GMOs involve scientists plucking genes from one organism and putting them into the genetic code of another. Several studies over the last 10 years found that genetically engineered foods can pose hazards to humans, including higher risks of toxicity, allergies, antibiotic resistance, weaker immune systems, and even cancer. GMO crops can contaminate other microbial, plant, and animal species, which could lead to their extinction, according to the Center for Food Safety.

5. Sewage sludge, or biosolids, from waste-treatment plants aren’t only fertilizing fields, they could contaminate them with dioxins, toxic chemicals, and heavy metals.

So if you define “organic” by what it’s not, you could say that organic means produced without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, or the other unhealthy practices listed above. But to really understand what organic is, consider what Organic Gardening magazine—started in 1942 by J.I. Rodale, founder of the American organic movement (as well as Rodale Inc.), has to say about the subject: “Gardening organically is much more than what you don't do. When you garden organically, you think of your plants as part of a whole system…that starts in the soil and includes the water supply, people, wildlife, and even insects.” It’s a method that offers a way out from under the toxic burden that chemical agriculture has placed on our bodies and our planet. “Today the need to transition our agriculture to organic is even more critical,” says Maria Rodale, granddaughter of J.I. Rodale, and editor-in-chief of Rodale.com. “Chemical agriculture is not only a primary cause of global warming, but it is destroying our health and our environment.”

And here’s what else “organic” means:

An antidote for global warming
Rodale Institute researchers have found that if all U.S. farmland were converted to modern, science-based organic, regenerative farming practices, 25% of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions would sink into the soil. If we apply that same concept to all the tillable acres in the world, 40% of the Earth’s CO2 would be sequestered in the ground. This would be doubly good news because CO2 that is trapped by the soil is kept out of our atmosphere where it can’t destabilize the climate. Secondly, soil microbes thrive on carbon, so the extra carbon dioxide in the ground would lead to rich, healthy soil. Current chemical-agriculture methods are doing just the opposite: They actually kill off beneficial microscopic life forms found in healthy soil. And chemical agriculture contributes to atmospheric CO2 levels through the production, transport, and application of pesticides and fertilizers.

Defense against floods
Synthetic chemicals used as pesticides and fertilizers kill off beneficial fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms that help turn decomposing plants and animals into rich, spongelike soil organic matter (SOM). Organic growing methods nurture the development of SOM, which allows the soil to hold more nutrients and soak up more rainwater than soil treated with chemicals. Chemically treated fields have an 80% runoff rate, with washed-away chemicals winding up in local streams, wiping out aquatic life and possibly finding their way into your drinking water. Chemical-based farming also leaves soil loose, lifeless, and more vulnerable to erosion, contributing to flooding problems. In addition, the root structures of organic plants are stronger and more able to survive flood conditions.

Healthier food
You may live far away from any chemical farming operation, but that doesn’t mean agricultural chemicals won’t wind up inside your body; chemical residues can stick around on produce. Exposures to pesticides have been linked to autism, diabetes, weight gain, Parkinson’s disease, poorer performance in school, and premature births. But it is possible to grow and eat healthy food without these dangers. Organic food tends to be more nutritious, too. A recent analysis of about 100 studies, including more than 40 published in the past 7 years, found that the average levels of nearly a dozen nutrients are 25% higher in organic produce.

Famine prevention
Organic farms can also feed the world. Critics often claim that chemical fertilizer and pesticide use and genetically engineered crops are necessary to produce enough food for the world's population. But University of Michigan researchers compiled data from hundreds of reports worldwide (including Rodale Institute's long-running Farming Systems Trial) and found there would be more than enough calories to support the world’s population through organic farming. In 2008, the UN reported that organic farming practices in Africa created more food than conventional farming methods there.

Need more reasons to go organic? Consider:

Prenatal exposure to pesticides and nitrates may hinder children’s academic performance. In a 2007 study, children conceived during summer months (when pesticide and nitrate levels in surface water are highest) scored lower, on average, on standardized tests than other children.

Organic apples tout a 34% increase in antioxidant activity versus conventional ones.

Organic milk contains 75% more beta-carotene (as much as a serving of Brussels sprouts), boasts 50% more vitamin E (a powerful antioxidant that aids the immune system and may fight some cancers and heart disease), provides 2 to 3 times the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin that keep our eyes healthy, and about 70% more omega-3 fatty acids.

The World Health Organization cited pesticides in food as a problem linked to developmental problems in children around the world.

A 2003 study found that children who ate food produced on chemical farms had about 6 times the amount of pesticides in their urine than those who ate all organic foods. Researchers concluded that feeding children organic produce is a relatively easy way to bring exposure levels down to what the EPA calls a negligible risk; those on the conventional diet were in the range of uncertain risk.

Commonly used pesticides hide in our fat cells and are released into our bloodstreams when we burn fat, disrupting the cell’s energy-making furnaces. In a 2004 study published in the International Journal of Obesity, dieters with the highest level of organochlorines (a kind of pesticide) had a greater metabolic slowdown as they lost weight than their peers with lower levels of the pollutant.