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| The world is slowly waking up to the realization that the way we
have lived for the last fifty years may not be sustainable. More and
more of us are beginning to realize that humans are part of the ecosystem,
part of a delicate relationship with all living things. And realizing
the way we live is causing harm to the planet. When we begin to look
at the decision to buy organically grown products in this way, we
understand why the organic movement has grown from a few students
in 60’s, to a world-wide movement encompassing millions of consumers
and producers. |
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| As organic farmers, we pledge to act as stewards of our precious
resources and protect and maintain the soil, water, plants, and animals
of our farm while continuing to look for new ways to farm and distribute
our harvests creatively to benefit the land and people of our planet. |
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| Why Organic? |
Organic Times, Spring 1992
Excerpted from an article by Sylvia Tawse
Alfalfa's Markets, Boulder, CO |
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| Protect Future Generations |
| Children receive four times the
exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing
pesticides in food. The food choice you make now may impact
your child's health in the future. |
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Reduce Fossil
Fuel Consumption |
| American farms have changed drastically
in the last three generations, from the family based small businesses
dependent on human energy to large scale factory farms highly
dependent on fossil fuels. Modern farming uses more petroleum
than any other single industry. More energy is now used to manufacture
synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate, and harvest all
the crops in the United States. Manufacturing petroleum-based
synthetic fertilizer is now responsible for 5% of total world
fossil fuel consumption. While organic farming is still mainly
based on labor-intensive practices such as weeding by hand and
using green manures and crop covers rather than synthetic-petroleum
based inputs. Organic produce also tends to travel a shorter
distance from the farm to your plate. |
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| Build Soil |
| The Soil Conservation Service estimates that more than
three billion tons of topsoil are eroded from the United
States croplands each year. That means soil is eroding
seven times faster than it is built up naturally. Soil
is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming.
But in conventional farming the soil is used more as a
medium for holding plants in a vertical position so they
can be chemically fertilized. As a result, American farms
are suffering from the worst soil erosion in history. |
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Protect Water
Quality |
| In California’s Central Valley,
a center of industrial farming: “Nitrates and other contaminants
are a serious problem in Fresno's tap water," said Dr.
Beatte Ritz of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an assistant
professor of epidemiology at the University of California at
Los Angeles School of Public Health. "Last year the city
itself told pregnant women to avoid drinking it. That's good
advice”. The main source of this groundwater contamination
is the over use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. These fertilizers
are applied at rates greater than what plants can use and the
balance is washed through the topsoil and into the groundwater,
contaminating it forever. |
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| Reduce Health Risk |
| Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered before
extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases
had been established. Now the EPA considers that 60 percent of all
herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides
are carcinogenic. A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated
that pesticides might cause an extras 1.4 million cancer cases among
Americans over their lifetimes. The bottom line is that pesticides
are poisons designed to kill living organisms, and can also be harmful
to humans. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth
defects, nerve damage and genetic mutation. |
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Protect Farm
Workers |
| A Natural Cancer Institute study
found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a greater risk,
by a factor of six, than non-farmers of contracting cancer.
In California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers
have risen an average of 14 percent a year since 1973, and doubled
between 1975 and 1985. Field workers suffer the highest rates
of occupational illness in the state. Farm worker health also
is a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticide
use can be poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are
poisoned annually by pesticides. Several of the pesticides banned
from use in the United States are still manufactured here for
export to other countries. |
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| Help Family Farms |
| Although more and more large scale farms are making the conversion
to organic practices, most organic farms are small independently owned
and operated family farms of less than 100 acres. It's estimated that
the United States has lost more than 650,000 family farms in the past
decade. Organic farming is becoming one of the few hopes left for
family farms. |
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| Support a True Economy |
| Although organic foods might seem more expensive than conventional
foods, conventional food prices do not reflect hidden cost borne by
taxpayers, including nearly $74 billion in federal subsidies in 1988.
Other hidden costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous
waste disposal and clean up, and environmental damage. |
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| Promote Biodiversity |
| Mono cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with
the same crop year after year. While this approach tripled farm production
between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life
has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. To replace
the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing
amounts. |
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| Great Taste |
| There's a good reason many chef's use organic foods in their recipes.
They taste better. Organic farming starts with the nutrients of the
soil which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and ultimately
our palates. |
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