Should you be buying organic produce?

It is the dilemma many of us face when staring at the produce section in the supermarket, is it really worth it paying for the more expensive organic food, which can sometimes meaning paying a premium between 7-80% on products? Now ideally we would all like to hit up the local farmers market, to not only buy locally but also considering a lot of food sold at farmers markets is organic and typically cheaper anyway. But when you can’t get there, sometimes you may be stuck with no choice than to debate organic versus non-organic.

So what actually is organic? So in a nutshell it means the food is in its NATURAL form. Free of synthetic additives like pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and dyes, and not be processed using industrial solvents, irradiation, or genetic engineering. So while “organic” seems to be typically associated with just “chemical free”, “organic” actually refers to the holistic means of growing and handling food, linking Soil. Plants. Animals. Food. People. Environment.

So following a holistic lifestyle so far points all arrows towards following an organic diet (or to the largest extent that you can) but if you aren’t convinced yet here are another few reasons you should eat organic:

• WATER: Organic food keeps our water clean: while it is obvious that pesticides and chemicals don't belong in drinking water, lakes or oceans currently surface water runoff from non-organic farms and other non-organic food operations is depositing pesticides into lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. This can also result in a contamination of drinking water, as many pesticides don’t break down in water. So not only does organic food farming help keep water clean, it also uses less water, helping to preserve the earths water supplies
• ANIMALS: Additionally this run-off from pesticides can infiltrate some of our animal’s natural habitat compromising the healthy plants, lakes, streams, fields and rivers, animals so heavily rely on.
• FOSSIL FUELS: Organic food production used less fossil fuels than conventional agriculture production, with studies proving that sustainable farming methods use between 23% to 56% less fossil fuel energy than conventional farming. By buying organic food this supports sustainable farming, which ultimately preserves non-renewable fossil fuels and helps to reduce global warming impacts.

So while all these benefits are pretty clear, whether or not you should buy organic ultimately depends on your overall orientation towards holistic living and sometimes your budget. Because although it is undeniable that organic food is more natural and typically better, it is sometimes hard to justify paying 80% extra for some food items.

So… should you buy organic? I would conclude with when you can ,it is best to, but visiting the local farmers market or growing your own veggies has equal or if not greater benefits for your body and the environment.

There is a wealth of information out there, one great example is the Australian Certified Organic website: https://aco.net.au

Image: http://faring-well.com