Organic Benefits

organicfruitsThe Organic Premise – good for the body, the earth and the future of our planet:

Many people are aware that food grown according to organic principles is free from exposure to harmful herbicides and pesticides, but that is only one small aspect of organic agriculture.

A larger part of organic agriculture involves the health of the soil and the ecosystem in which crops and livestock are raised. Organic farmers recognize that healthy, vibrant, and live soils and ecosystems significantly benefit crops. Natural, undisturbed soil is alive with microbiotic organisms that exist in harmony with the native plant life and the inorganic minerals that provide the soil’s substrate.

Synthetic chemicals (such as herbicides, pesticides, and/or fast acting inorganic fertilizers) applied in or around crops interrupt or destroy the microbiotic activity in the soil. Once the microbiotic activity in the soil has stopped, the soil becomes merely an anchor for plant material. In this conventional method of agriculture (in use for only the past 75 of 10,000 years of recorded agriculture) plants can receive only air, water, and sunlight from their environment –everything else must be distributed to plants by farmers, often from inputs transported thousands of miles to reach the farm.

Another value of organic agriculture is that organic practices sequester more carbon in the soil than conventional agriculture, lending a helping hand to fighting global warming and climate change.

See Rodale Institute Study on organics and carbon sequestration

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