Buying organic can be a little pricy, but there are great benefits to eating organic foods. For a few bucks more, you will be doing your health a great deal of good as well as the environment. According to the Organic Trade Association, here are 10 great reasons to switch to organic foods:
1. Organic products are required by law to follow strict procedures to ensure livestock and produce are grown without toxic chemicals. Herbicides, pesticides and hormones get passed to you when you eat commercially grown products.
2. Organic foods taste better. Yes, it’s true. Organic foods are grown in balanced soils without any artificial anything. Of course it would taste better!
3. Organically grown foods reduce health risks. EPA approved pesticides were registered before research revealed that they can cause cancer and other diseases.
4. Organic farms respect water sources. Organically farmed produce and livestock do not produce harmful chemical and nitrogen leaching.
5. Organic farms build healthy soil rather than erode it away, which can happen with mono-cropping on a commercial farm. Mono-cropping is growing the same crop on the same patch of land year after year.
6. Organic farmers try to work in harmony with nature as much as humanly possible. Organic agriculture respect the balance demanded of a healthy ecosystem. Wildlife is encouraged by including forage crops in rotation and by retaining fence rows, wetlands and other natural areas.
7. Our organic farmers have been the leaders in researching innovative ways to keep pesticides out of their crops and decreasing the agricultural impact on the environment.
8. Organic farmers collect and preserve seeds to avoid the loss of species (biodiversity).
9. Organic farming practices can be a lifeline for small farms because it offers an alternative market where sellers can command fair prices for crops.
10. Organic abundance. Most food categories have an organic alternative, as well as non-food products such as cotton clothing.