why bother eating organic?

Written by EcoDeaf contributor, Shay Bertling

Part of the responsibility that comes with being conscious of our ability to affect worldwide systems is that of answering to the one need we all have in common next to maybe a clean change of underwear every couple days (or weeks, for some.) Well, plenty of people go about their lives without owning a pair of knickers, but I hope you get the point anyway. Comfort is a common state that everyone has sought out at one point in their lives or another, and one way we can directly enhace the quality of our lives is by quite literally putting our money where our mouth is.

Yeah, I’m talking about food.

We are all directly responsible for our ecological impact by the things that we put in our mouth in the same way the car is responsible for the fuel that it requires, we are but yet motor vehicles of a different design with more flexible fuel options. The thing is that, because the number of mouths needing to be fed have grown in count at a rate maybe faster than our reflexes have allowed us to accomodate for (estimated at 6.7 billion in November 2008) but certainly fast enough for people to recognize the opportunity of turning a quick dime. The catch? Turning a blind eye on ethics.

In effect, we’ve managed to catapult ourselves in a direction that goes against the grain of natural processes, as we tinker with our chemistry sets in search of the slightest advantage to put us ahead of the cycle of life that surrounds us, injecting the earth in consequence with our carefully crafted, but entirely unnatural and invasive, species of genetically modified vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, tobacco, the list goes on. 

We’ve even gone so far as to “protect” these valuable crops by dousing them with pesticides and fertilizers that not only do much to speed their growth but also plenty to stunt our own as the toxic renmants of these processes build up in our systems, throwing them out of alignment and accelerating the worldwide rate of disease, discomfort, and deprivation. Even impoverished people across the world are rejecting our rations for fear of disrupting the harmony of the natural systems that make their homes the unique places that they are. And what of the great lengths we take to sell these products to people far and wide, further straining our global capacity to sustain life as we pump more pollution into the air from the tailpipes and smokestacks of the trucks, boats, planes, that ship these items somewhere across the horizon where they could likely rot and be wasted anyway?

If you don’t see what I’m trying to get at by now, then you shouldn’t be allowed to operate heavy machinery. Get real, support local organic crops. And this is one place you can start: http://www.organicconsumers.org/