| Why should you consider purchasing organic? Isn't it | | | | When you eat animals who had been fed these |
| more expensive and just a marketing ploy? Actually, | | | | compounds, you often ingest the antibiotics and |
| no. Organic foods are a reaction to the overuse of | | | | chemicals as well. |
| pesticides and growth chemicals in food production | | | | Another reason to choose organic meat is kindness |
| and processing, and may help you protect your | | | | toward animals. Any meat that is marked organic |
| health. | | | | comes from animals who have been permitted time |
| Organic products also help out local farmers and | | | | outside at least daily. |
| ranchers. You are often purchasing locally produced | | | | 2. Coffee: watch for the Fair Trade label on coffee |
| foods, if you buy organic. This keeps money in your | | | | packages, as well as the organic label. If you buy fair |
| local economy, and is environmentally sound because | | | | trade coffee, you can be comfortable knowing that |
| it limits the amount of fuel used in shipping to market. | | | | you are helping to support workers who have been |
| These are all noble goals, but the bottom line is that | | | | paid fair wages for their labor. |
| with some items, buying organic is a matter of | | | | 3. Some fruits: the Environmental Working Group has |
| protecting your health. Other products are fairly | | | | put out a list naming which foods tend to have high |
| resilient and not affected by organic practices, either | | | | concentrations of chemicals. The number one item on |
| because they are protected by a thick skin or | | | | this list, with the highest concentration of chemicals, |
| because they don't soak up and retain the chemicals | | | | is peaches. Always purchase organic peaches. The |
| used in growing. | | | | thin skin of a peach, together with the pulpy fruit, |
| Other products are made much healthier through | | | | means that they tend to absorb and retain the |
| organic practices, including the following: | | | | chemicals that they have been grown with. |
| 1. Meat: Nonorganic farming in large factory farms | | | | Other fruits that hold pesticides, and that you may |
| involves the use of both antibiotics (to keep down | | | | want to purchase organic, are: apples, strawberries, |
| infections from unsanitary conditions and | | | | cherries, and grapes. Wine, since it comes from |
| overcrowding, often) and growth chemicals (to | | | | grapes, should also be purchased organic when |
| encourage the animals to grow to maturity more | | | | possible. |
| quickly and be larger than they otherwise would). | | | | |