Why do I eat organic again?

I’ve always thought eating organic foods was a good idea… mainly for personal health, not ingesting poison seems like an inherently good idea. But back in the States I was turned off by the high prices. I’d only occasionally get the organic apples or eggs. I took a random tour of a local dairy and became addicted to the fresh, hormone-free, local milk – Shatto (oooh so yum, i miss you shatto!!!).

Then we moved to Oz. Almost everything is already more expensive than I’m used to, so it was all about financial survival at first. In the gold coast, Theo met a trainer, who is now our good friend. He’s a CHEK practitioner, if you’ve ever heard of that...totally awesome at what he does.

It has kinda changed Theo’s life, and mine since Rhett advises to eat organic. We find all the hippie organic food stores and markets around town and even found an organic food delivery service. Some things are more expensive this way, but some are cheaper. And the delivery charge is the same cost as us catching a bus or train somewhere and dragging it back home. So we’ve been mixing it up depending on what we need.

We love the deliveries, though. I’ve heard and read quite a few accounts of friends in the States joining local CSAs and talking about how fun it is to receive their box, not knowing what surprises they’ll find inside. It’s the same for us. We generally get small box with a mix of fruits and veggies… here’s a pic of our first one:



I know there have been studies recently comparing organic food and conventionally grown food and results have shown no difference in nutrition. So the jury is still out on that, but I have a feeling long-term studies should be done to really understand the long-term effects of the chemicals.

The second reason I always had for eating organic was the environment. It’s not rocket science to understand that the chemicals used on farms don’t always stay on their own fields or food. Anyone who works in the environmental field will tell you our waterways are becoming more and more polluted by fertilizers, insecticides, and other chemicals used in agriculture.

So those were really my only reasons until the other day I watched a documentary with Theo about globalization and some workers in Indonesia wanting to start a global workers union to provide better working conditions in 3rd world countries where huge corporations come in and take advantage of the cheap labor source, with no regard to worker safety (it’s called the Globalization Tapes, kinda long, but interesting).

The movie actually had nothing to do with organics. But there was a scene showing workers spraying DDT on palm oil trees (whole other environmental issue in itself) all day long without protection. They explained how they had to beg their employers for protective gear because they were getting sick from the poison. It was pretty horrible.

And the light bulb went on. Eating organic isn’t all about my health or just “the environment.” The first exposures to the poison are the workers! Not just another reason to eat organic, but another reason to eat local organic and understand exactly where your food comes from. Now I don’t feel bad paying double sometimes for food, we figure we save so much money by not having a car, it works itself out.

And I actually should have come to this realization earlier, since my own husband was a victim of DDT poisoning as a child….Jeeeeez… Sometimes I have a thick skull.

“Farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don’t care about spots on my apples
Leave me the birds and bees…”
-Joni Mitchell