Green Divas & Dudes Prefer Organic Food
This green diva has to weigh in on all the buzz and banter about the latest study from Stanford about the lack of nutritional benefit from eating organic food. There is a lot of evidence that I wasn’t the only one irritated and quite surprised to see how this study was spun into a pro-chemical pesticide and fertilizer piece. Clearly an anti-organic slant, the article about the study on Stamford’s website states, “Organic foods are not necessarily 100 percent free of pesticides. What’s more, as the researchers noted, the pesticide levels of all foods generally fell within the allowable safety limits.”
Here’s where I see the fly in their ointment and question the premise of their spin. Do I really trust the FDA or whoever is setting “safe limits” for pesticide residue in my food? My answer is a quick and resounding NO. There are a thousand reasons for my feelings on this, not the least of which is my conspiracy theory that chemical and biotech lobbies have a strong foothold in the FDA and can manipulate standards to suit their needs rather than the true safety of the people they are designed to protect. For those who have an unlimited amount of time and energy and the inclination to root them out, here’s a list of lobbyists that are lobbying the FDA.
Further muddying the waters of this study is evidence that Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute, which conducted the study has accepted funding from companies like . . . wait for it . . . Monsanto! Not really shocking and it pretty much makes sense that a company looking to thwart Proposition 37, which is all about GMO labeling in California, might find it helpful to have this study come out right about now. NOTE: Monsanto is the single largest financial donor in the fight AGAINST labeling food with GMOs in CA under Prop 37. The Cornucopia Institute did a great article about the biotech funding that may have tainted this Stanford study.
Two Good Reasons Why Green Divas & Dudes
Prefer Organic Food
1. Sustainable Agriculture Rocks
. . . and I mean REAL sustainable agriculture, not biotech companies like Monsanto that say they are (their tagline is, A Sustainable Agriculture Company) (?) . . . In my humble opinion, sustainable agriculture is all about creating smaller regional farming systems and communities that grow food responsibly without harming farm workers, soil, water, food or the people who eat it. I know people will argue that we can’t feed the world on small farms, and perhaps that would be true today, but I dream of a world where we are nourished by local farms and regional farming systems, which do a lot less damage to the environment (and perhaps people) than giant factory farms. The more we support our local farmers, the closer we come to this reality.
To see more about why Sustainable Agriculture Rocks go to GD Meg’s original post on Why Green Divas & Dudes Prefer Organic Food
2. Pesticides Suck
To see more about why Pesticides Suck, including definition of pesticides, health reasons to avoid them, what pesticides the USDA found in ground water, and more, go to GD Meg’s original post on Why Green Divas & Dudes Prefer Organic Food
Organic agriculture includes non-food crops like cotton.
Listen to the Green Divas 5-min Sleeping Naked is Green segment about why we should buy organic cotton.
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The Green Divas The Green Divas share low-stress ways to live a deeper shade of green through a weekly radio show, podcasts, videos and blog posts. Working with talented partners and credible sources like myEARTH360 the Green Divas produce content on a variety of topics relating to a healthy green lifestyle. Visit The Green Divas website to learn more, and check out The Green Divas on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter too!
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