Organic Fruits and Vegetables
How To Keep Them In Your Future
Why Organic Fruits And Vegetables?
If you were with us in our discussion about organic meat you understand that less than three percent of the cattle, hogs and chickens we consume are organically raised. If we all decided to eat organic meat there would not be enough to go around, nor would we be able to afford it.
The same is true for fruits and vegetables with only about two percent being grown organically.
Commercial Crops
Industrial farms are able to produce about twice as much food per acre as their organic counterparts. Somewhere in the next forty years we are looking at a world population of 9 billion people. We will need to be producing fifty to a hundred percent more food with only 5 percent of the earths arable land still available to use.
And just what does this mean? Quite simply, we may have to fertilize like crazy, and even genetically engineer our crops, just to come close to amount of food we will need soon. It also means, if you want organic food, you may need to start growing your own.
Consider also, that unless you know the grower of you food, your organic fruits and vegetables may not be as organic as you think. Organic farmers use fertilizer and pesticides also. Drift from nearby commercial farms can also contaminate the so called organic food.
Organic farms are supposed to use one of the 195 registered biopesticides. These are derived from animals, plants or minerals and are used in 780 commercial products. They are said to be less toxic than commercial pesticides but they also have a downside. They tend to stay in the soil longer, while not being a big problem now, if their use was more wide spread, we just don't know the problems that could be caused.
Organic fertilizers have only one drawback, the price. These consist mainly of manure as well as lesser used materials like peat, seaweed and compost. It takes about four tons of manure to fertilize an acre of soil. It's much less expensive to synthetic fertilizer if you are growing on a large scale. Your backyard garden would be different of course. A good composting program would take care of most home gardens.
It looks to me like the cost of getting good quality, healthy and organic fruits and vegetables will continue to rise as the world continues to find artificial ways to feed it's population. There has never been a better time to devote a portion of your real estate to growing some of the food you and your family consume. You will be reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill by composting and you will be raising healthy, nutritious food for yourself and your family to eat.
While thinking about the food you eat consider these recent statistics. Nearly 27% of all Americans are obese, and in nine states that figure goes as high as 30%. The average American consumes 220 pounds of meat a year and only 14% of the recommended fruits and vegetables. Because of our love for processed food the average American consumes about 1,500 mare calories a day than what they need, or should be getting.
Corn fields in the U.S. use about 10 million tons of chemical fertilizer each year. In doing this we have increased yields by 23% in the last twenty years. Increased production is good, poisoning the Gulf of Mexico, not so good.
Consider also our love for out of season fruits and vegetables. Out of season means the crops are grown many miles from where they are purchased. The transportation involved creates a very large carbon footprint.
It seems obvious that our food is killing us and our food production is killing our country. We can all make changes in our diet that would make us, and our nation, healthier.
Top of Organic Fruits And Vegetables
Weeding The Green Way :
Composting Basics :
Organic Vegetables
Hydroponic Gardening :
Organic Lawn :
Organic Garden
Solar Power
Wind Power
Environmental
Energy Reduction
Organcic Life
Saving Money
Social and Local
