Organic farming means different things to different people; most people agree that it means avoiding synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Nevertheless, the philosophy and practice of organic farming often goes beyond that simple concept. The organic production represents a commitment to a sustainable system of living in harmony with nature. It is the highest standard of farming methods that replenish the soil, respect bio-diversity and carefully keep records of the audit trails of the whole production system. (From the producer to the retailer.) The term “organic” is best thought of as referring not the type of input used, but to the concept of farming. Simply speaking – RESPECT – for creation. It must respect and optimize the health and productivity of every interconnected form of life as a principle. It is making conscious decisions and taking responsibility for actions that affect the world outside your backdoor, the end of your driveway, and outside the boundaries of your hometown.
Organic farming is a complex innovation and conversion process affects the whole farming systems. Dedicated organic farmers adopt methods that improve soil health and fertility, decrease erosion, and reduce pests and diseases though cultural and natural biological process. They encourage plant and animal diversity for balanced ecosystem that is both restorative and sustainable.
Today’s organic farmers would fall under the category of innovators who are venturesome, willing to take financial risk. It was frequently found that organic farmers are better educated, have less farming experience, place less emphasis on the profit maximization but more on their passion to the commitment of stewardship of our mother earth for the future generations. Adopters to these ideals could be divided into two categories: the Early Majority adopts new ideas just before everyone else does, whereas the Late Majority remains rather skeptical and waits until everybody is doing it. Which category do you want be?
Organic farming is sometimes referred to as sustainable agriculture, although the two concepts have subtle but significant differences. Sustainable agriculture seeks to improve the entire food and agricultural system by balancing production and consumption. For example, a farmer practicing sustainable agriculture may use the manure from the animals to fertilize the fields of grain, which grown to feed the animals. Eliminating the purchase of fertilizer reduces the cost of growing grain, and growing grain for animal feed rather than buying it reduces the cost of raising livestock.
Sustainable agriculture also addresses the environmental, economic, and social issues related to agricultural systems. It attempts to ensure that arable land is protected so that current and future generations will be able to farm from it successfully; many involved in sustainable agriculture also seek to preserve the vitality of family-owned farms and rural communities. A sustainable farm may not be organic, and an organic farm may not be sustainable, although they may use similar techniques.
Organic Farming, system of agriculture that uses environmentally sound techniques for raising crops and livestock that are free from most synthetic pesticides, growth hormones, and antibiotics. Organic farmers typically rely on pesticides and fertilizers derived from plants, animal wastes, and minerals. They incorporate biological methods, such as the use of one organism to suppress another, to help control pests. The methods used in organic farming increase soil fertility, balance insect populations, and reduce air, soil, and water pollution.
Organic farming combines a variety of methods to maintain the health of soil, prevent soil erosion, and control pests with minimal or no use of synthetic pesticides. While this account cites impressive yields from organic farming techniques such as the use of natural fertilizers, crops rotation, and integrated pest management.
BENEFITS OF ORGANIC FARMING For consumers, the most obvious benefit of organic farming is health-related—the food produced has little or no pesticide residue. Some advocates of organic farming believe that organic food is more nutritious than food produced by conventional farming. Organic farming, however, has less obvious, longer-term benefits. Because it preserves and enhances topsoil, it increases the chances that future generations can continue growing food. It helps preserve aquatic life by minimizing the flow of toxic pesticides into streams, rivers, and lakes. In addition, it encourages healthy populations of beneficial insects that keep destructive insects under control.
Opponents of organic farming argue that organic farming is less profitable, requiring more labor and management skill than a conventional farm. Savings on pesticides, fertilizers, and fuels, however, usually offset the cost of the extra labor. Moreover, the environmental benefits of organic farming represent long-term savings, not just for the organic farmer, but also for future generations.
Note: This article is publishing in Zigzag newspaper and sends to the Email-group.
Are we eating a safe food?
Are we giving our kids safe food?
These questions are affecting us coz we consume more vegetables and fruit. Let us talk first the principle of Acid and Alkaline.
Just as our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees F., there are other measures of normal condition or homeostasis within the body. The levels of sugar, oxygen and carbon dioxide within the blood must all be stable, and the pH of the bodily fluids, including the blood, should be 7.4, slightly alkaline.
Knowledge of how to keep your body in a slightly alkaline condition is vital to restoring your health. Without this knowledge, you cannot maintain the proper pH of your body to function and for the living ecosystem within you to survive.
An acid/alkaline imbalance toward too much acidity allows yeast’s, viruses, rebellious cancer cells, and various other parasites to thrive. Acidity also leads to conditions such as chronic fatigue, arthritis and allergies.
The typical American diet is high in foods that cause our bodies to become acidic. It is no wonder, then, that these serious conditions are becoming more prevalent. If you have an acidic condition from eating an acid-forming diet, your body constantly is trying to return to an alkaline state by calling on your stored reserves of alkaline minerals: sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium. If you continue eating foods that are highly acid forming, you leach minerals that are even more alkaline from your body, creating a mineral deficiency that becomes severe overtime.
Acid-forming foods should we can eat limit to 20% of our meal:
Acid-forming foods; sugar, candy, flour products, bean, soybean
products Tofu; nuts
Alkaline-forming food: should we eat limit to 80% or more of our meal:
Alkaline –forming food:
Land vegetables, Ocean vegetables, Herbs and herb teas, mineral
water, lemon, limes soaked and sprouted almonds and fruits.
Neutrals: butter, Ghee
Then now, Remember that whole foods is fundamental to good health, stated in another way, our diet is what we eat while nutrition is what we get from we eat.
2nd let us talk the agricultural industry in our country heavy users of chemical residue and synthetic input.
Pesticide safety levels on food were set years ago to protect adults. Now we know that children are especially sensitive to the toxic effects to the insecticide.
Scientist has linked pesticides on food to hyperactivity, aggression, altered hormone levels, and coordination problems.
Many of the chemicals used to kill crop insects, for example, the organophosphate insecticide, do so by disrupting the normal functioning of a bug’s nervous system. Pesticides act in the same way on humans, but because the doses are so much smaller, the effects are hard to detect. Until recently most major health concern over pesticides centered on their potential to cause poisoning or cancer, particularly brain cancer and leukemia. In fact, of the 600-agriculture pesticide approved for use by the federal government so far, 73 are suspected carcinogens- meaning there is strong evidence that they cause cancer in laboratory animals but only limited evidence of causing cancer in humans. In addition, cancer is not the only possible adverse health effect. Scientist says that even small doses of these pesticides in fruits and vegetables regularly consumed by children may lead to genetic damage to offspring and suppression of the immune system.
Recently, scientist has also begun to worry that pesticides may cause developmental problems that effect children’s physical coordination and ability to learn and remember. Some scientist even suspect pesticides may be linked to increased hyperactivity and aggressive behavior in kids.
According to Philip Landrigan, M.D., a pediatrician and a member of Child’s advisory board, who chairs the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, “the evidence from animal studies is a wake-up call that can’t be ignored. We can state with certainly that many pesticides are developmental neurotoxins that can have lasting effects on the brain. Therefore, we need to take further steps to protect children. Scientists are now exploring whether environmental chemicals, including pesticides, may be partially responsible for growing rate of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other behavioral and developmental disorders in children.
Here’s how you can minimize the danger
- Balancing the risk of pesticides with the need for a healthy diet means buying local produce and organically grown. Well water is at risk because pesticides used on crops can contaminate wells near farms.
- Peel fruits and vegetables that are obviously waxed to remove any surface pesticides.
- Limiting pesticide exposure in food is only one part of the solution, however. Many of the same pesticides used on produce are dusted on pets, sprayed on lawns to control weeds, and used by exterminators to kill indoor pets, can be particularly risky because many pesticides have harmless byproducts when exposed to sunlight. When sprayed indoors, pesticides can linger and provide ongoing exposure to crawling babies and young children.
Six Steps to Protecting Your Family
1) Whenever you can, buy organically food grown without pesticides.
2) Buy local. Because locally grown procedure is not shipped long distances, it is less likely to have been treated with post-harvest pesticides. Ask the produce manager for the origins of fruits and veggies.
3) Wash sturdy produce with as vegetable brush and add a few drops of a mild dishwashing soap to the water to remove surface pesticides. Rinse thoroughly. Peel delicate fruits. Soak leafy greens in water with a few drops of lemon juice.
4) Choose a variety of foods, rather than serving the same fruits and vegetables too often.
5) Peel non-organic fruits and vegetables such as apples and zucchini that might have been sealed in with the waxes.
6) Try your hand at gardening. Grow some of your own food if you can – without chemicals. Avoid using pesticides for pest control on your lawn or in your household.
Third the R.A. 8976 the food fortification law will be implemented more chemicals will be added to our food especially to the basic commodities. Therefore, we must know what Health Foods are.
Health Foods, general term for foods and food products that meet certain criteria during their production and processing. In this issue, the term health foods is used to describe organic foods, natural foods, herbal teas, and food supplements, including vitamin and mineral pills and products such as lecithin and kelp. Demands for organic and natural foods increased as people became concerned about the presence of chemical additives, pesticides, and herbicides in their foods and the nutritive value of highly processed foods.
ORGANIC FOODS are more correctly termed organically grown foods. They are grown without using growth hormones, antibiotics, or synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Organically grown foods are fertilized with manure and composts, and alternative methods are used to control pests and weeds.
Although no official definition exists for natural foods, many scientists and consumers agree those natural foods are those that have been subjected to minimal processing and contain no artificial additives or ingredients. Many nutritionists refer to these as basic and traditional foods. Interest in natural foods arose as more and more consumers became aware that refining foods resulted in a less nutritious product. Refining whole-wheat flour into white flour, for example, removes great many nutrients and the dietary fiber. Common natural foods include wheat germ, raw sugar, unsulfured molasses, whole grain bread without preservatives, and granola.
VITAMINS AND OTHER PRODUCTS Many claims which have been made about the benefits of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrition supplements. Studies have shown that while some may fulfill their promise, others have no effect or may even be harmful if misused. For example, large intakes of vitamins A or D are known to be toxic. Dolomite, sold as a source of calcium and magnesium, has been reported to contain high levels of other minerals, such as lead, arsenic, and mercury, which can be dangerous. Although many people think that herbal teas are beneficial in various ways, their safety has never been studied.
Many health food users believe that so-called natural vitamins are superior to synthetic vitamins. Actually, natural vitamins, although isolated from foods, are chemically identical to those synthesized in the laboratory. The human body is unable to tell the difference between natural and synthetic vitamins and handles them exactly alike.
Process food
Fruits, vegetables, and jams and jellies are preserved shortly after harvest by home canning, which can preserve food for several months. Most canned food is pre-cooked, then placed hot in a glass-canning jar and partially sealed. The seal is tightened by placing the jar in boiling water.
Fermentation
A process, in which microorganisms convert complex organic molecules into simpler molecules, is used in the production of cheese. Bacteria convert sugars found in milk into lactic acid, a compound that prevents the growth of other, harmful microorganisms and helps preserve the food.
Therefore, TCKI say that to educate and create awareness among the masses, consumers, and farmers that organic farming and changing on lifestyle of food intake to ensure the continual healthy body and dynamic working behavior and health guaranteed.
Taga Cordillera Kami Inc./TCKI
