From Jeff Cox
Yes, organic food does taste better and is more nutritious, no matter what the apologists for chemical agriculture say. It’s also purer, free of toxic chemicals, devoid of genetic modifications, without antibiotics and hormones, not irradiated, and is stuffed with everything Mother Nature intended it to be stuffed with—all for your benefit. That should be reason enough to buy and eat organic. But there’s more. Much more.
Let’s go back to the farms where organic foods are grown. These farmers are working with the forces of nature, not against them. There are serious consequences for that. Here’s what I mean.
Forces of nature are inexorable, immutable, and irresistible. They keep the worlds and the stars wheeling in their courses. They insist that water flows in certain patterns. And they have established the way plants grow to be healthy. Organic farmers and gardeners work with these forces of nature. They augment them. They recognize the whirling cycles of nature and help them whirl ever faster. Nature loves this. She responds with all kinds of unanticipated benefits.
For example, if you dig lots of actively decaying organic matter (anything that once was alive—compost, old plants, whatever) into the soil, here are just a few of the benefits that accrue:
~The decaying matter holds water like a sponge and makes the soil resistant to drought.
~Humus is created, which holds nutrients on its surfaces to be released as plants call for them.
~Nutrients in the organic matter spill into the soil and are recycled to build living plants’ tissues.
~Microorganisms in the soil bloom, feeding even more nutrients to the plants and preventing disease organisms from taking over.
~Healthy soil creates healthy plants, which are pest and disease resistant.
In other words, because you are trying to simply feed your plants in a natural way, Mother Nature showers you with gifts that promote health. You get a confluence of unintended benefits.
Now if you try to feed your plants with chemicals, you get a confluence of unintended detriments. Yes, you give your plants the major nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium that help plants grow. But here are just a few of the unintended detriments that accrue:
~Chemical nitrogen floods the soil with nitrogen, shutting down the natural ability of soil microorganisms to feed the plants nitrogen naturally, in the amounts they need, when they need it, in the form they need it. The result is a flush of soft, weak, green growth very attractive to insect pests.
~Excess chemical fertilizers run off into ground and surface water, polluting steams and lakes, creating algae blooms that suck all the oxygen from waterways, suffocating fish and other aquatic organisms, disrupting the natural order of life in water, and creating unhealthy ecosystems in the waterways.
~No organic matter is returned to the soil, meaning that soil life diminishes and eventually dies out. This renders the soil liable to erosion. Soil runs off into the steams and rivers, clogging and polluting them.
~Chemical fertilizers interrupt the natural cycles that create healthy soil which in turn creates healthy plants which in turn creates healthy animals that eat those plants. Health can be passed up the food chain, but the use of agricultural chemicals disrupts that chain.
~The production of chemical fertilizers requires enormous amounts of energy supplied by fossil fuels, which creates greenhouse gases and wastes finite resources of fuel. In so doing, the process destroys the earth’s natural ability to do the same thing without huge inputs of fossil fuels.
This only touches on a few of the issues surrounding organic versus conventional agriculture. There’s much more to be said about the effects of fungicides, herbicides, and nematocides; about humane versus inhumane treatment of our meat, milk, and egg producing animals; about the nutritional quality of our foodstuffs; about our relationship with the earth, and about how we—creatures of this earth and Mother Nature’s children—treat her, and what happens when we treat her with respect or when we clamp her in a headlock and try to force her to our will.
Organic goes way beyond putting aside the malathion and the Roundup. It goes to the heart of who we are and what we want.
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Jeff Cox is author of The Organic Cook’s Bible
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Pennsylvania
I have some startling news. Wine is just a beverage. A delicious and delightful one for sure, but just a beverage. Meanwhile, there are people out there paying really big bucks for bottles of wine. I mean really, really big bucks, like a grand or more. Why? Here’s why:
