Why you should Eat Organic Food ?

These days Organic Whole Food is growing in popularly with many brands including Targets Simply Balanced and Safeway's O Organic, makes you wonder is it really worth it? There are many ways to Organic Food is more beneficial for you. It is good for your health, the environment, and animals. The food that is labeled USDA Organic shows that food or other agricultural product has been created through approved methods. The U.S. Department of Agricultural website article says that These methods integrate cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering are prohibited in the production of organic food. Organic food bans genetically modified organisms in their seeds and they also cannot feed their organic animals GMO feed. Anything in the organic production must be 100% non GMO.

The animals also must go under specific regulations to be labeled USDA organic, including living conditions and what they are fed. For example chickens are free range unlike industrial companies that don't follow these standards. Growth Hormones and Antibiotics are prohibited this is good because eating antibiotics in food can reduce the effect of them for when you really need them. And this way they can be raised how they naturally should be.

The standards for organic multi ingredient food must not include any artificial preservatives,flavors, or colors. You should eat organic food because it is better for your health, the environment, it's non GMO, and they take better of their animals.
These organic standards create healthy food with less artificial toxic chemicals. Many inorganic food is full of gmo which is scientifically proven to be harmful, while organic eliminates that completely from their food according to required labeling standards. Since Organics are guaranteed to leave out toxic pesticides out of food that are made to kill makes them more safe. Organic maintains healthy rich soil because they don't use extremely toxic fertilizers, this way the living organisms that help the plants grow make the nutrient rich soil. This causes the food to often be more nutrient rich from the healthy, rich, organic dirt, and if the dirt is healthy that makes it unnecessary for the use of fertilizers.

Organic food also supports the pollinators, while avoiding herbicides and pesticides which kill the bad and good insects including bees! The farming practices use healthy growing methods to maintain very necessary level of biodiversity. It is very necessary to maintain this because bees are very important they pollinate so many crops including Apples, Almonds, Blueberries, Cherries, Avocados, Cucumbers, Onions, Grapefruit, and Oranges. This is vital because 90% of orange production is dependent on honeybee pollination. Non organic food is produced with herbicides and pesticides that threaten honeybees.

Another great thing about organic food is that it typically isn't monocropped. Non organic farmers plant crops in the same place every year. Supporters of this claim say that it is more of a profitable way, because they only need to buy the machinery and tools to support that crop. Although it is a profitable way to farm, the opposing side states that it is very harmful to the environment. It is harmful because planting the same crop in the same spot over and over again takes away the nutrients from the soil, because of this it causes the soil to be very weak. And when the soil becomes very weak this encourages farmers to use synthetic fertilizers to increase plant growth and fruit production. If Organic farming methods are used monocropping can be avoided all together.

Along with that organic food is full of more nutrients and antioxidants. A study from the researchers at Newcastle University said that organic fruits, vegetables and cereals contain significantly higher concentrations of antioxidants than conventionally grown crops. They added that organic produce and cereals were found to have lower levels of toxic metals and pesticides.

The researchers studied 340 international, peer-reviewed studies that looked at the differences between organic and conventional crops. They found that 19 to 69 percent higher and higher amounts of conventionally grown crops and some antioxidant compounds. Many of these antioxidant compounds have previously been linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including [cardiovascular] and neurodegenerative diseases and certain cancers, in dietary intervention and epidemiological studies, the paper reads. This is an important quote because it discusses why it is important to eat organic foods.

If you buy certified USDA organic food they must also be 100% non GMO. Currently there is the debate of the safety of GMOs. The USDA presently presently allows GMOs in our food without testing it as they do other substances and drugs. Since GMOs are not technically require it to be tested as the same way as drugs. GMOs create their own pesticides, supporters of the GMO say that the pesticides created by GMOs are saying that the pesticides are passed through the digestion with no harm. Other studies from 2012 Chinese study and UK study disagree. They found that the genes that were in the roundup ready chemical were found in these women and fetuses they think that it was from the animals that have been fed GM corn. These studies have shown that these studies have shown that real people were damaged by this, . claim that There has not been any clinical trials on humans. There's This includes prohibiting farmers to plant crops using non genetically modified seeds, and organic cows can't eat GMO alfalfa, or corn. And multi ingredient food like soup and cereal must use all non genetically modified organic ingredients in the recipe. Since USDA organic food can't use any gmo ingredients in their food it makes it less harmful and more healthy.

Studies show that Gluten disorders are linked to GMOs that affect 18 million Americans. A study released by the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), and uses data from the U.S. department of agriculture, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Medical Journal reviews as well as other included independent research. The authors relate GM to five things that may trigger related disorders. The disorders that are affected include autoimmune disorder , celiac disease: for example the effects this can have is intestinal permeability, imbalanced gut bacteria, immune activation or allergic response, impaired digestion and damage of the intestinal wall. These conditions are clearly very harmful to your body and GMO may be the cause of exacerbate gluten related disorders. Avoiding GMOs can make it more possible to be less harmful to your body.

GMOs have only been around for about twenty years and no one is for sure if they are completely safe for consumption or the environment, in fact many studies show that they are more damaging to you, animals, and the environment than helpful. For example GMO organisms have contaminated existing seeds, since they have altered DNA material this passes on modified traits to non-target species, when this happens it causes a new strain to be created, creating something was never planned or intended in the lab. A study in North Dakota shows that 80% of the wild canola plants that were tested contained at least one of the transgenes. This isn't good because this means we are losing the amount of original non genetically modified food.

In Japan, they had modified a bacteria formed a new kind of amino acid that was unnatural and could not be found in nature normally. This new modified bacteria (new amino acid) was used in protein drinks. Before this was recalled this newly modified bacteria caused very severe metabolic and mental damage to hundreds along with several deaths. After these awful things took place Japan ended up banning GMOs. There are also countries the have bans or restrictions on GMOs too including New Zealand,Austria, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria and Luxembourg. While the United States is still supporting GMOs and Hawaii is now having gmo guavas.

Along with that GMOs have been proven to be harmful in killing monarch butterflies when milkweed their favorite food was cross-pollinated with Bt corn which became toxic to endangered species. If GMO crops are killing other animals like monarch butterflies, what makes it ok for us to eat genetically modified organisms? GMOs have also not yet proven safe. There have also been studies showing that rats that ate genetically modified potatoes showed signs of chronic wasting disease, chronic wasting CWD is typified by chronic weight loss leading to death. And female rats that were fed herbicide-resistant soybean diet gave birth to sterile stunted pups.

Greater than 80% of genetically modified crops around the world have been made to deal with herbicides and resist them also known as roundup ready. After the crops are engineered they use toxic herbicides such as roundup, the Health Organization determined that the herbicide glyphosate (the key ingredient in Roundup?®) is probably carcinogenic to humans. If this is true it means that carcinogens can lead to cancer from the substances and exposures of GMOs.

Genetically modified crops also cause superweeds and superbugs, which can only be killed with even more toxic poisons like 2,4-D this is a major ingredient in Agent Orange. Using toxic poisons and chemicals like this is very harmful to the environment. And along with that many of the crops are lost and damaged costing millions, this isn't good economically either.

Organic farming have way higher animal care/ wellbeing standards. The requirements including living conditions, food quality, transportation, and slaughter. Many others farming methods including like the non organic farming methods don't have as many regulations on how much they should be outdoors. While organic cows by law must must be at the pasture whenever the weather conditions let them. On a average typically the cows spend 200-250 spend their days outdoors. Also they must be have 60% of their food to come from forage or (grass fed), this is good because it gives them a diet that they are naturally exposed to be fed. This is good because this usda standard makes it so organic cows can't spend their whole lives living indoors. Also when the cows do need to be inside they are made to have good quality housing.

Raising organic cows are much more sustainable. And yes, products like organic milk are generally more expensive, about three dollars more. But you are supporting companies that take care of their animals and give them more natural live's. Routine antibiotic use is banned in organic production, this is important because the overuse of antibiotics can stop working or lose their effectiveness for both humans and animals.

The organic cows also live longer and happier lives, for example At Yeo Valley, a 13-year-old cow called Philbert is still very much part of the milking herd. Like all sustainable farms, it operates a nose-to-tail philosophy. Once Philbert is no longer milked, she will be left to graze and eventually used for meat. This is better for the cows so they can get bigger naturally and through their lives instead of using the artificial growth hormones to make them fat quickly, so they can kill them when they are much younger. This is what the non organic farms do.

Organic milk is more expensive but their cows produce one third less of their milk than conventionally non organic cost do. Although this is the case, organic milk still does contain 50 percent more omega-3 fatty acids, these omega 3-fatty acids help provide protection against dementia in humans and also cardiovascular diseases. It is worth the price to buy organic milk and beef products, because the animals have better living conditions, they eat more of a grass fed diet and have less antibiotics in them.

Along with animals getting treated well, organic chickens are also treated better. They must be fed with Fed chicken feed that is 100% usda organic which may be supplemented with appropriate trace minerals and vitamins. Also the other usda standards require the chickens to have year round outdoor access as well. The usda organic also has a list of prohibited substances that includes no added growth hormones, antibiotics, avian or mammalian byproducts, and more. Most organic eggs are cage free while non organic are typically not. Chickens that are grown organic typically have better diets including letting them forage, since they have mineral and vitamin rich food and more of a variety of food, this causes the chicken and the eggs to be more nutrient rich and higher quality. With organic chicken, these potential threats are minimized. Since organic chicken doesn't use antibiotics and trace amounts of pesticides, that non organic raised poultry can include, this helps minimize the linked threats and risks of some cancers, early puberty and other health conditions in people.

You may be thinking how am I going to afford all of this organic food? Organic food is too expensive and so on and so forth. Well there are solutions for example you can find discounted organic food, have your own chicken coop to have your own cage free organic chickens, you could also consider having a greenhouse or garden, and keep in mind the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen. The dirty dozen is a list of the highest pesticide residues and the clean 15 is the fifteen items that you can buy non organic that are least sprayed with chemicals, a lot of the clean fifteen is protected by the peels of
the fruits and vegetables. Some of the examples of the dirty dozen include strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, peaches, pears, celery, tomatoes, and sweet bell pepper, all of these foods are important to buy organic because they have the highest pesticide residues on them. The food with the lowest pesticide residues also known as the clean fifteen include Avocados, Sweet Corn, Pineapple, Onions, and Mangoes are to be bought non organic if you must, although they still use non GMOs, they still have far less chemical pesticide residue.

In conclusion organic food You should eat organic food because it is better for your health, the environment, it's non GMO, and they take better care of their animals. There is so much evidence concluding to this, evidence including how the organic animals lives are vs. Conventionally raised animals. The lives are better because of what they eat and how they get to go outside way more. Unlike conventionally raised animals that are cooped up in facilities.

Also as discussed since the organic products must be non GMO and have prohibited pesticides and herbicides this makes the food so much more healthy. It is more healthy because it has more antioxidants. Although organic food is more expensive there is still good reasons why you should pay the extra dollars, buying organic food is supporting a good cause. At the end of the day the pro definitely outway the cons, because they're are more pros of eating organic food than cons. And that is why you should eat organic food.

Works Cited

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8. Lizzie Rivera @LizzieRivs. Why Dairy Is a Good Place to Start with Organic Food. The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 2 Sept. 2017, www.independent.co.uk/indy-eats/why-dairy-is-a-good-place-to-start-with-organic-food-a7911056.html.
9. CHiKPURE?„- USDA Organic Chicken Standards - CHiKPURE?„- Organic Protein Powder. CHiKPURE?„- , CHiKPURE?„- , 29 July 2017, www.chikpure.com/usda-organic-chicken-standards/.
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