Have you wandered about the organic movement that’s taken off in recent years? I have. I always though food is organic matter, biodegradable, compostable. I thought all that we eat derives from plants or animals that are fed plants, apart from salt of course. But it’s obviously not that simple. So I looked up “organic” in the Canadian Dictionary of the English Language from 1997. Besides other explanations I found the following meanings for “organic”:
- using or produced with fertilizers or pesticides;
- free from chemical injections or additives, such as antibiotics or hormones;
- simple, healthful, and close to nature
If I interpret this my way then non-organic food is unhealthy, far from natural and stuffed with antibiotics, hormones, and chemicals for example from fertilizers. And we eat it? Help! Obviously, at some point chemical fertilizers and pesticides meant huge progress, raising yield enormously, seemingly the solution to hungry people (if only the food was distribute evenly) and we would not have to worry about ever running out of food despite the rising number of persons on Earth. Sweet deal, right? But I am still sceptical about all that non-organic food, it just does not seem right. There’s for example the food at McDonald’s that does neither decompose nor rot, not for months and maybe not even for years but we’ll have to stay tuned for updates since the person who put a McDonald meal on her shelf only did this about 9 months ago. The article I recall from the news dates back a while now.
Similar as for cosmetics there’s a dirty dozen list for fruits and vegetables too because in the meantime we know that especially non-organic produce is not all that safe, neither for our health or our environment. Fruits & veggies tend to receive a lot of fertilizers and pesticides to keep bugs away and they can’t just be washed off. A recommendation I read on how to wash a non-organic peach went like that: wash, peel, wash again, eat. Would you bother doing it? And what’s that ripe peach going to look like once you peeled and washed it. Root vegetables can absorb a lot of “junk” from the soil, too. Thanks to our baby we switched to organic produce. We receive the Organic Box which sources as much produce as possible locally. Fruit tends to come from Southern B.C. and California. The quality is much better than the organic produce at our local supermarket that has a small range of organic produce to start with. There’s another problem though: Labelling. Most certified organic are certified by one or the other organisation and they might have different standards. With the Organic Box I trust the company here in Edmonton to check out there suppliers. After all, they tell you for every product which farm it comes from so I can also check out the farm’s website.
I remember asking someone I know if they were eating organic. No, it’s too late for us, she replied (They are 50-60 years old). But she works in the health sector too and attended a talk about harmful substances in cigarettes and foods. It did the trick, they eat almost all organic now, not just produce but also meet and sugar and … we can’t afford that yet. Unbelievable! Healthy, naturally grown food costs close to a fortune! I understand why but to me it’s just another example of science and economy gone astray.
Anyway, she said that one eats more consciously once you have paid a lot of money for that loaf of bread or that cookie. Yup, I think so. You don’t just shove it down your throat while driving or in front of the TV, bad habits altogether. It’s back to almost forgotten and abandoned table manners. The other profit from organic food should be less food waste – buy only what you need soon, plan meals ahead of time. A Canadian friend said once that it would be smarter the European way – have smaller fridge and shop more often for fresh food in smaller quantities. Without a car you don’t even get tempted to buy lots of food without knowing what to do with it.
to be continued ...
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