English 1100
April 4, 2012

A State of Well-being

A walk through the produce aisle at your local farmers market or grocery store used to be fairly simple. One would only require a strong eye for which produce was ripe and undamaged. Over the past decade or so however, things have changed, in that, now there is great attention brought to where and how the produce was grown. The organic food industry has spiked all over the world due to issues regarding health and wellbeing. Purchasing Organic food is a much better choice because of all the health risks one can avoid, it has a positive effect on the economy, and provides a much smaller impact on our environment.
To begin, Purchasing organically grown food is a much better choice for the body because of all the health risks you can possibly avoid. Most people believe that fruits and vegetables are the only thing in the grocery store that can possibly have “organically grown” stickers on them. However, organic meat is also a growing industry since there have been some health issues surrounding meat in the past. If something is said to be “organic”, that means it was produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs. These modern synthetic inputs include synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the meat does not contain genetically modified organisms. Most researchers say, “Although data are limited, comparative studies suggest that organically-grown food typically contains fewer synthetic pesticide residues than conventionally-grown food.” Many articles say that there are no conclusive studies that show eating organic food is necessarily better for you, but more studies are popping up showing many negative side effects from exposure to fertilizers and pesticide residues being found on produce. Here is an example, “In fact, earlier this month the President's Cancer Panel cited emerging research and recommended Americans take the precautionary approach and start eating food grown without chemical pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, and antibiotics.” Although research has not been conclusive, it is obvious that this issue is a growing concern with matters regarding to human health if the Presidents Cancer Panel has publicly issued warnings about non-organically grown food. Scientists have said “While it's costly and difficult to design a study following a group of people on a strict organic diet, compared with others on a conventional chemical diet, there has been mounting evidence relating exposure to pesticides to some cancers, particularly a common form of childhood leukemia, obesity, type 2 diabetes, infertility, miscarriages, and other health issues.” These health risks stated above are very serious and life threatening to take a gamble on and can easily be put out of mind by simply purchasing organic. Some of the fertilizers and pesticides used are known to have Carcinogenic ingredients in them. What this means is that the food you are eating has been in direct contact with a cancer-causing agent. Although the levels of these carcinogenic ingredients are said to be low, the fact that any ingredients of this nature come in direct contact with food you eat is shocking. This produce, which is filled with harmful chemical residues, is the same produce that is used to raise cattle, and other meat products found in your grocery store. Organic meat is raised with 100% organic feed. Non-organic meat however, is fed a wide variety of chemically infected produce and other non-organic animals, which have been raised for the sole purpose of becoming ingredients in feed. “There is, however, greater certainty regarding how the disease spread. The carcasses of diseased animals entered the feed chain, because at the time it was common practice to add meat products, notably rendered(2) ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats, deer, elk, bison), to cattle feed.” The disease this article above refers to is, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or more commonly known as, mad