There are many reasons to avoid using synthetic chemicals to grow your own food. This is true whether you grow food for yourself or sell it to others. But one of the most important reasons is that it is bad for the environment. Have you ever considered the reality that much of the pesticide used in our foods comes from our own backyards?
How often have you heard that organic foods are better for the environment? This was an argument in the “Dirty Dozen” report put together by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Many people use this to argue against using artificial chemicals to grow their own food.
If this were true, why are organic foods often much more expensive than conventional foods? This means they take up more space and they take more energy to produce. The argument seems to be that organic foods are better for the environment but they are actually worse.
The fact is that most of the pesticides we use today come from chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are produced using synthetic chemicals which have been banned for the last 50 years because they are toxic. In fact, some scientists believe that humans can eat a wide variety of foods without the need for any chemical fertilizer at all.
Is this just an opinion? It’s not. This is a study done by Dr. R. Bruce Anderson and published in the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.”
That means if you want to get organic foods that don’t use pesticides, you should look at where they come from. You may be surprised at what you find. They seem to suggest that the pesticides used on organic vegetables are generally less toxic than those used on conventionally grown vegetables.
Of course, there are differences between the two types of vegetables in the way that they are grown. However, it appears that the pesticides used on the latter are more efficient in killing insects.
If the argument about “organic foods” being better for the environment was really based on the facts, we would not be talking about using them at all. We would be using fresh vegetables from the garden and no chemicals at all. We would be growing as much of our own food as possible.
Even if we were able to grow enough to buy in bulk, it would still be more economical to buy in bulk from a local farmer or the “farm-to-table” restaurant rather than buy the “farm-to-consumer” items at the “farm-to-fork” grocery store. It would seem much more sanitary to use organic vegetables, that is, if you don’t mind using artificial chemicals to grow them.
But, as we have learned, this is not the case. We cannot be certain that organic vegetables are safe from the damage caused by the pesticides that these vegetables are grown with.
If you want to live a healthier life and do your part to help the environment, there is still no reason for you to use artificial chemicals to grow your own organic foods. For many people, this seems like a simple idea, but in reality it is much more complicated than you might think. In fact, it is still a debate among scientists as to whether or not organic vegetables are really safer than their conventional counterparts.
Are organic foods really better for the environment? Unfortunately, the answer is still a resounding no.