Organic Farming
As you may or may not know, Patrick Frink is a staunch advocate of organic produce and living an organic, green lifestyle. His family’s gardens have been strictly organic for over ten years now, and there is seemingly no end to the benefits Mr. Frink has noticed to both eating and growing organically.
“Organic” farming means farming without using pesticides, chemicals, and artificial fertilizers. These inorganic compounds have been repeatedly found to cause all sorts of physical and environmental chaos. For example, pesticides on food have been shown to cause brain damage in young children. These chemicals are sprayed on plants to keep insects and pests from eating the crops. Many consumers believe that they can simply wash the pesticides off produce before consuming it, but in many cases they do not wash it thoroughly enough, and even if they do, the poisonous chemicals have already made their way inside of the produce and cannot be removed. But pesticide doesn’t just hurt consumers- it also hurts the environment. Pesticide which seeps into the soil can both leach into the soil and drift to nearby waterways, but also be absorbed into the air and rained back down miles from where it initially evaporated. This pesticide runoff, once entering watersheds can contaminate both drinking water supplies and wild animals that either live or feed in the contaminated water.
Synthetic fertilizers are a problem because they too can find their way into water supplies and cause rapid growth of aquatic plants, which in turn overtake the water and create an oxygen imbalance, killing off local fish. Some plants also thrive more heartily than others, killing other plants that may provide nourishment to some animals and organisms.
Genetically modified (GM) foods are another bi-product of inorganic farming. GM foods are foods which have been genetically altered to breed in or out certain innate qualities which may make food last longer or shorter. For example, some GM corn has been bred to repel insects, thus cutting down the need for pesticides. This may seem like a nice idea in theory, but there are still side effects. GM foods have not been thoroughly studied, partly because GM foods at most retailers are not marked in any way. They are suspected to cause among other things, immune system damage, stunted growth, and Autism. They have also been shown to kill off native crops that grow nearby, depleting food supplies for wild animals.
Conversely, organic food has none of these problems. Fruits and vegetables are grown using natural fertilizers (such as compost or green manure) and are not treated with pesticides. As a result, consumers of the produce are healthier, as is the environment surrounding the farms where the produce is grown.