Top Six Reasons to Eat Only Organic Fruits and Vegetables

When you eat organic foods, you provide your body with vitamins, minerals, filtered water, and much more. These provide us with vital foundations for health. Most food sold in stores is grown with pesticides or other toxins. These chemicals have been proven to adversely affect health. In some cases they cause death. They also pollute the Earth and have been associated with mass animal deaths . Your choices make a huge difference in the quality of your life. What you eat builds and maintains your body. Also, supporting organics supports a healthy Earth. You help to improve the quality of water, soil, and air. Animals, plants, birds, worms, and other living beings also benefit when you choose organic food...

1. You Are What You EatIn 1826, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin originated the ever-famous "You are what you eat" in his book Meditations on Transcendent Gastronomy. We have heard this truism throughout our lives. Have you considered the depths of its wisdom? Eat an apple, and you eat life: vitamins, minerals, water, and more. Eat pesticide residue, and you fill your body with poisons . These toxins accumulate in your muscle and fat tissues. Some of them are nearly impossible to ever remove from your body. Mothers who breast-feed children illustrate an example of these danger potentials, because poisons are passed to the baby. The Journal for Pesticide Reform reports that "pesticides such as chlordane, heptachlor, DDT, DDE and other organohalogen compounds do not biodegrade in the environment. Instead they bioconcentrate and are stored in the fat of human beings, who feed at the top of the food chain." Also, a 1999 Consumers Union report determined that "pesticide residues found in foods children eat every day often exceed safe levels" .Organic foods are grown with no poisons. They are natural foods that have been grown with more conscious care for the health of the soil, the plants, and the people who will eat them. Over 100 studies have found that the nutritional quality of organic foods far surpasses that of conventional produce . Why take a chance and risk exposing yourself, your children, or your friends to chemicals that could destroy their health? Why make this even a negotiable point for yourself? Choose organic, choose natural, and you choose health.

2. Food is your best medicine.In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates taught that "let food be your medicine and medicine be your food." He was highly respected during his lifetime, and he has been famous ever since. His words have stood the test of time and remain deep wisdoms that we can live by. All medical doctors to this day recite the Hippocratic Oath. In this vow, doctors promise to try never to harm their patient and also to work for their patient's highest good.We can all make similar choices. We can all seek to bring about our highest good. We can all seek not to harm ourselves. We can live by that oath and also by Hippocrates' other famous teaching: Food is your Best Medicine. If this is true, then it makes sense that we should choose foods that are known to bring us health, energy, and peace of mind. Scientists have proven in many studies that organic food choices have far superior nutritional quality than conventional food choices . Also, they have proven that foods grown with pesticides are definitely linked with diseases and deaths for humans and animals.

With all that in mind, the choice seems clear: Choose Organic.

3. Pay now or pay later.Cost is the number one reason that people choose for not buying or eating organic foods. When you eat food that may contain poisons, however, the cost is far higher than simply the price tag. This cost also includes the impact that this food choice has upon your body and the world. Studies have proven that pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and other poisons accumulate in the body and lead to illness, disease, and death . Next time you feel hesitant to pay a couple of extra dollars for an organic item, simply remember: Pay now for delicious, healing food or pay later for medical bills, illness, and suffering. When you pay for organic food, you pay for energy, health, and the wellbeing of the Earth.

4. We prefer life over death.Humans innately desire life. We desire health, energy, well-being, happiness, and wellness. Thus, we should choose that which will bring us greatest energy, happiness, and health. Conversely, we should not choose that which will bring us fatigue, depression or anxiety, ailments, illnesses, diseases, or death.Pesticide is designed to kill, and it does not know when to stop killing. This is all that it does. Organic, naturally-prepared foods, on the other hand, provide beneficial nutritional and healing qualities for us.With all this in mind, again, the choice seems clear: Choose Organic.

5. Earth needs your help.We live amidst the newest mass extinction on our planet. Typically in a mass extinction, more than 50% of species on Earth die off, and over 70% diminish greatly . A recent study published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE) states that "most species [on Earth] are declining as a result of human activities and...the result will be a more homogenized biosphere with lower diversity at regional and global scales" . The study also reports that "humans have not yet fully impacted some remaining ecosystem so that the total number of declining species will probably grow." We are hurting animals and plants worldwide. We are also harming the quality of our air, our water, and our soil. The result of this is that we hurt ourselves, also. Every level of life is being affected by our lifestyle and our choices.Every choice we make has an impact on environment. When we buy food , we support every level of production that has gone into this product. We support the farmer or rancher or logger who grew our primary resources. We support whatever pesticides or natural methods that they choose. We support also the manufacturing processes that produce our goods. This means that we also support any use of chemicals or packaging that manufacturers choose to use. At the next level, we also support the distribution of these foods or goods to our stores. We support the stores at which we purchase items. Finally, we support the gasoline, bicycle, and shoe companies that provide our means of reaching the store to buy food.Every time we make a choice we have a large impact. We affect ourselves, multiple other people, resources, surrounding lands and animals, the carbon footprint (air, water, soil) of distribution and production, and the gasoline/automobile/bicycle companies that give us movement.Your choices make a difference. The Earth needs your help. Therefore, choose organic.

6. Healthy plants mean healthier soil, water, birds, worms, animals, plants, air, and you.Since the 5th century BC, people have been telling us a healthy way to live. The way is natural. The way is organic. The natural path honors nature and works in harmony with Earth. As a result, we achieve harmonious health. We feel energy, peace of mind, wellness, and health. Also, the plants and animals benefit. The air, water, and soil benefit. Organic food is a choice that makes a lot of sense. Again, you pay now or pay later. Make organic food a non-negotiable choice. Choose life..............................

Organic food

Organic foods are made according to certain production standards. The use of conventional non-organic pesticides, insecticides and herbicides is greatly restricted and avoided as a last resort. However, contrary to popular belief, certain non-organic fertilizers are still used. If livestock are involved, they must be reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones, and generally fed a healthy diet. In most countries, organic produce may not be genetically modified.
Organic food production is a heavily regulated industry, distinct from private gardening. Currently, the European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan and many other countries require producers to obtain special certification in order to market food as "organic" within their borders. Most certifications allow some chemicals and pesticides to be used, so consumers should be aware of the standards for qualifying as "organic" in their respective locales.
Historically, organic farms have been relatively small family-run farms. which is why organic food was once only available in small stores or farmers' markets. However, since the early 1990s organic food production has had growth rates of around 20% a year, far ahead of the rest of the food industry, in both developed and developing nations. As of April 2008, organic food accounts for 1-2% of food sales worldwide.

Identifying organic food

Processed organic food usually contains only organic ingredients. If non-organic ingredients are present, at least a certain percentage of the food's total plant and animal ingredients must be organic (95% in the United States and Australia) and any non-organically produced ingredients are subject to various agricultural requirements. Foods claiming to be organic must be free of artificial food additives, and are often processed with fewer artificial methods, materials and conditions, such as chemical ripening, food irradiation, and genetically modified ingredients.

They may also be required to be produced using energy-saving technologies and packaged using recyclable or biodegradable materials when possible.

Early consumers interested in organic food would look for non-chemically treated, fresh or minimally processed food. They mostly had to buy directly from growers: "Know your farmer, know your food" was the motto. Personal definitions of what constituted "organic" were developed through firsthand experience: by talking to farmers, seeing farm conditions, and farming activities. Small farms grew vegetables (and raised livestock) using organic farming practices, with or without certification, and the individual consumer monitored. As demand for organic foods continued to increase, high volume sales through mass outlets such as supermarkets rapidly replaced the direct farmer connection. However, for supermarket consumers, food production is not easily observable, and product labeling, like "certified organic", is relied on. Government regulations and third-party inspectors are looked to for assurance. A "certified organic" label is usually the only way for consumers to know that a processed product is "organic"

Environmental impact

Several surveys and studies have attempted to examine and compare conventional and organic systems of farming. The general consensus across these surveys is that organic farming is less damaging for the following reasons:

#Organic farms do not consume or release synthetic pesticides into the environment — some of which have the potential to harm soil, water and local terrestrial and aquatic wildlife.

#Organic farms are better than conventional farms at sustaining diverse ecosystems, populations of plants and insects, as well as animals.

#When calculated either per unit area or per unit of yield, organic farms use less energy and produce less waste, e.g., waste such as packaging materials for chemicals.

However, some critics of organic farming methods believe that organic farms require more land to produce the same amount of food as conventional farms. They argue that if this is true, organic farms could potentially destroy the rainforests and wipe out many ecosystems.
A 2003 investigation by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs in the UK found, similar to other reports, that organic farming "can produce positive environmental benefits", but that some of the benefits were decreased or lost when comparisons are made on "the basis of unit production rather than area".

Yield

One study found a 20% smaller yield from organic farms using 50% less fertilizer and 97% less pesticide. Studies comparing yields have had mixed results. Supporters claim that organically managed soil has a higher quality and higher water retention. This may help increase yields for organic farms in drought years.

One study from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency found that, area-for-area, organic farms of potatoes, sugar beet and seed grass produce as little as half the output of conventional farming.Findings like these, and the dependence of organic food on manure from low-yield cattle, has prompted criticism from scientists that organic farming is environmentally unsound and incapable of feeding the world population. Among these critics are Norman Borlaug, father of the "green revolution," and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who asserts that organic farming practices can at most feed 4 billion people, after expanding cropland dramatically and destroying ecosystems in the process Michael Pollan responds to this by pointing out that average yield of world agriculture is substantially lower than modern sustainable farming yields. Bringing average world yields up to modern organic levels could increase the worlds food supply by 50 %.

A 2007 study compiling research from 293 different comparisons into a single study to assess the overall efficiency of the two agricultural systems has concluded that
organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base (from the abstract)

The researchers also found that while in developed countries, organic systems on average produce 92% of the yield produced by conventional agriculture, organic systems produce 80% more than conventional farms in developing countries, because the materials needed for organic farming are more accessible than synthetic farming materials to farmers in some poor countries. On the other hand, communities that lack sufficient manure to replenish soils would struggle with organic farming, and the soil would degrade rapidly.

Nutritional value and taste

The most important study of organic food to date was completed in 2007 and found that organic fruit and vegetables contain up to 40% more antioxidants than conventional equivalents, and that the figure was 60% for organic milk. The 4-year study was funded by the European

Union and was the largest of its kind ever undertaken. A meta-analysis five years earlier (a review of all prior studies on the subject) had found no proof that organic food offered greater nutritional values, more consumer safety or any distinguishable difference in taste.
Limited use of food preservatives may cause faster spoilage of organic foods. Such foods in the stores, on the other hand, are guaranteed of not having been stored for extended amounts of time, still being high in decaying nutrients that food preservatives fail to preserve. Some studies have shown higher nutrient levels in organic fruit and vegetables compared with conventionally grown products.

Organic food may also potentially have higher amounts of natural biotoxins, like solanine in potatoes, as to compensate for the lack of externally applied fungicides and herbicides etc.

However, in current studies, there have been no indications of difference in amounts of natural biotoxins between organic and conventional foods.
Regarding taste, a 2001 study concluded that organic apples were sweeter. Along with taste and sweetness, the texture as well as firmness of the apples were also rated higher than those grown conventionally. These differences are attributed to the greater soil quality resulting from organic farming techniques compared to those of conventional farming.

Interesting Facts about Food Chains

Introduction

chain: In an ecosystem, plants capture the sun's energy and use it to convert inorganic compounds into energy-rich organic compounds1. This process of using the sun's energy to convert minerals (such as magnesium or nitrogen) in the soil into green leaves, or carrots, or strawberries, is called photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is only the beginning of a chain of energy conversions. There are many types of animals that will eat the products of the photosynthesis process. Examples are deer eating shrub leaves, rabbits eating carrots, or worms eating grass. When these animals eat these plant products, food energy and organic compounds are transferred from the plants to the animals. These animals are in turn eaten by other animals, again transferring energy and organic compounds from one animal to another. Examples would be lions eating deer, foxes eating rabbits, or birds eating worms.
This chain of energy transferring from one species to another can continue several more times, but it eventually ends. It ends with the dead animals that are broken down and used as food or nutrition by bacteria and fungi. As these organisms, referred to as decomposers, feed from the dead animals, they break down the complex organic compounds into simple nutrients. Decomposers play a very important role in this world because they take care of breaking down (cleaning) many dead material. There are more than 100,000 different types of decomposer organisms! These simpler nutrients are returned to the soil and can be used again by the plants. The energy transformation chain starts all over again.
Here is a figure showing one such food and energy chain. look like that:-

Names and word definitions

Producers:- Organisms, such as plants, that produce their own food are called autotrophs. The autotrophs, as mentioned before, convert inorganic compounds into organic compounds. They are called producers because all of the species of the ecosystem depend on them.

Consumers:- All the organisms that can not make their own food (and need producers) are called heterotrophs. In an ecosystem heterotrophs are called consumers because they depend on others. They obtain food by eating other organisms. There are different levels of consumers. Those that feed directly from producers, i.e. organisms that eat plant or plant products are called primary consumers. In the figure above the grasshopper is a primary consumer.
Organisms that feed on primary consumers are called secondary consumers. Those who feed on secondary consumers are tertiary consumers. In the figure above the snake acts as a secondary consumer and the hawk as a tertiary consumer. Some organisms, like the squirrel are at different levels. When the squirrel eats acorns or fruits (which are plant product), it is a primary consumer; however, when it eats insects or nestling birds, is it is a tertiary consumer.
Consumers are also classified depending on what they eat.

Herbivores are those that eat only plants or plant products. Example are grasshoppers, mice, rabbits, deer, beavers, moose, cows, sheep, goats and groundhogs.

Carnivores, on the other hand, are those that eat only other animals. Examples of carnivores are foxes, frogs, snakes, hawks, and spiders.

Omnivores are the last type and eat both plants (acting a primary consumers) and meat (acting as secondary or tertiary consumers). Examples of omnivores are:

*Bears --They eat insects, fish, moose, elk, deer, sheep as well as honey, grass,and sedges.

*Turtles -- They eat snails, crayfish, crickets, earthworms, but also lettuce, small plants, and algae.

*Monkeys -- They eat frogs and lizards as well as fruits, flowers, and leaves.

*Squirrels -- They eat insects, moths, bird eggs and nestling birds and also seeds, fruits, acorns, and nuts.

Trophic level. The last word that is worth mentioning in this section is trophic level, which corresponds to the different levels or steps in the food chain. In other words, the producers, the consumers, and the decomposers are the main trophic levels.

Food Webs

In looking at the previous picture, the concept of food chain looks very simple, but in reality it is more complex. Think about it. How many different animals eat grass? And from the Facts about Red-tailed Hawks page, how many different foods does the hawk eat? One doesn't find simple independent food chains in an ecosystem, but many interdependent and complex food chains that look more like a web and are therefore called food webs. A food web that shows the energy transformations in an ecosystem.

As you can see from this picture, food webs, with all their dependencies, can be very complex, but somehow nature balances things out so that food webs last a long time. Many species share the same habitat, their populations survive for many years, and they all live happily together.

The Ecological Pyramid

We described in the previous sections how energy and organic compounds are passed from one trophic level to the next. What was not mentioned is the efficiency of the transfer. In a highly efficient transfer almost all of the energy would be transferred -- 80% or more. In a low efficiency transfer very little energy would be transferred -- less than 20%. In a typical food chain, not all animals or plants are eaten by the next trophic level. In addition, there are portions or materials (such as beaks, shells, bones, etc.) that are also not eaten. That is why the transfer of matter and energy from one trophic level to the next is not an efficient one.
One way to calculate the energy transfer is by measuring or sizing the energy at one trophic level and then at the next. Calorie is a unit of measure used for energy. The energy transfer from one trophic level to the next is about 10%. For example, if there are 10,000 calories at one level, only 1,000 are transferred to the next. This 10% energy and material transfer rule can be depicted with an ecological pyramid that looks like this:

This pyramid helps one visualize the fact that in an ecological system there need to be many producing organisms at the bottom of the pyramid to be able to sustain just a couple of organisms at the top. In looking at the pyramid, can you guess how much larger the volume of each layer is as compared to the one just above it? Take a guess. It might not look like it but they are close to 10 times larger.

Final comments

Oaks rate a position at or very near the top of the wildlife food chain (or bottom of the ecological pyramid). They are the "staff of life" for many wild life species. The greatest food value comes from the acorn, especially during the winter season when other foods are scarce.

Squirrels, which are omnivores, are neither at the bottom or the top of the food chain. Since the feed from producers as well as primary consumers, one could say that they occupy two layers in the pyramid.

Hawks, which are mature birds of prey, are at the top of the their food chain and of the ecological pyramid.