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.

Cocktail

Alcoholic Cocktail Recipes

Who hasn’t had a 'Margarita' or a 'Sex on the beach'? Although some cocktails may have been given flamboyant names, the truth of the matter is that we all love to taste the mixed flavors elegantly served on a glass or a cup every once in a while.
We can now find cocktail bars, targeted to those people who come out of the office and want to go for a drink in a more upscale place than in a bar or a pub down the street. Such places offer a nice trendy environment, chill out music and videos and cozy seats so you can have a nice talk with your friends.
Cocktail recipes
grow by the minute, and nearly every country in the world contributes with a cocktail that has the country’s characteristic booze.Some examples are:
Caipirinha

This brazillian cocktail is made with Brazil’s typical liquor called ‘cachaça’, mashed limes, sugar and ice, although lately, many variants of this delicious drink have come up such as passion fruit caipirinha.
Margarita

Originally from Mexico, this cocktail is prepared with tequila, lime juice, triple sec and salt.
Miguelito

This is Costa Rica’s original cocktail made with ‘Guaro Cacique’, the ‘tico’s’ most representative liquor along with Imperial beer. This Cocktail is prepared with Cacique and coconut cream and served either on a shot or chilled.
Mojito

This is Cuba’s cocktail icon, prepared with mashed spearmint leaves, rum, mineral water, sugar and crushed ice. Along with Margarita, this drink is popular around the world as it provides a refreshing flavor with a great after-taste.
Other famous cocktails are: Bloody Mary, White Russian, Grasshopper, Mai-Tai, and Pina Colada.
Cocktails are often happy accidents that happened to the bartender, so do not be afraid and start creating your cocktails at home, and you may be the cerator of the next world-famous cocktail.