Why Organic?

Why should organic crops be used? Organic produce should be used in order to reduce the toxic load of chemicals in the water, air, soil as well as our bodies. At least, that should be the answer in a perfect world.

Soil Unusable
Although the health consequences currently are not that high; toxicity is still a problem that eventually can render the soil where there is non-organic farming, making it unusable for any type of farming. This is due to chemical pollution caused by toxic products and toxic wastes that not only gets into the crops, but also damages the soil so badly that eventually no crops will grow well in that soil.

It will also, at the same time, make the underground water supply extremely toxic and can also pollute the air. Since only about 0.5 percent of pastureland and crops are organic, that still leaves 99.5% of farm acres throughout the United States at risk of exposure to farming practices that pollute the entire environment.

Soil of Non-organic Farming
Studies have shown that pesticides and other chemicals get into the soil because non-organic farmers use large amounts of pesticides and fungicides to stop insects from destroying crops. The amount of pesticides that shows up in the body from non-organic foods is more than organic foods, although some organic crops might become toxic with small amounts of pesticides due to air pollution.

Organic Foods and Costs
Currently, organic foods have been shown to be better for consumption than inorganic foods - but these crops also have become more expensive to produce. The major area of concern with in-organic farming currently is damage to the entire environment even affecting organic crops and these numbers in some cases are quite high.

Another problem that is occurring in some cases is some organic farms are using over 20 chemicals normally considered illegal for crops labeled organic as well as some chemicals that should be illegal to use in organic farming, but that are still permitted by the "US Organic Standards". This can damage the soil, water, and even the air. This is a problem where the government has not developed the proper standards to reduce the environmental pollution.

Organic farming in some cases can even reduce toxicity levels in soil that is already polluted, but it will not eliminate it. Industrial agriculture causes problems in the environment downstream, so that whole farms having organic crops will be polluted with poisons and toxic products that are odorless and invisible. The use of artificial fertilizer traveling downstream is one of the main reasons for a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is now larger than 21,500 square kilometers or an approximate area bigger than the state of New Jersey.

Use Organic When Possible
Should organic food be used? - Yes, because non-organic farming does have higher levels of pesticides, antibiotics, as well as pollution that potentially traveled downstream. But health wise, studies have shown very little change in toxic chemical levels in humans. These figures, however, will eventually grow to actually have a severe effect if we continue to use more land for non-organic farming instead of making use of more land for organic farming.

Until that time, we are destroying large portions of soil being used to farm, which eventually will only make the soil more toxic until a point is reached where the toxicity of foods will become a serious problem to the health of consumers. It is suspected that these numbers will begin to show real changes in levels of toxicity until more of the other 99.5 percent of farmland is converted over to organic use.

So the answer to the question "why organic?" is to make some reduction in the toxicity out of the 99.5% of the soil that is currently unfarmed or is being used for non-organic farming. If the governments would do something about this problem, we might see some changes, but when only .5% of the land is being used for organic, farming it is going to almost be too expensive to afford organic food no matter how healthy it is and how much healthier it will become in the future.