Sustainable agriculture Essay Example for Free

Sustainable agriculture Essay natural provenders are becoming to a greater extent visible(prenominal) in all types of stores where food is sold. Nowadays, instead of scouring many another(prenominal) stores looking for thorough foods, they pay become available for purchase in everyday shopping locations such as Vons, Ralphs, as well as Target and Wal-Mart. With closely of the population be consumed with fitter take in and fitness, eating radical foods is a step people make in bettering oneself. Additionally, it is essential to protect our artificial satellite in as many ways as possible. innate foods have grown nationally, are healthier and safer to consume than conventionally farmed foods, and are beneficial to the environment. Originally, there was no such thing as thoroughgoing or conventional foods. All farming was positive as there were no pesticides available.However, as the intake up for foods increased, farmers had to figure out how to increase the product ion of their product, as well as preserving the food to be available for longer periods of time therefore pesticides were born. The term thoroughgoing foods is defined by the denomination Is total nutriment improve For You, as crops that must be produced without conventional pesticides (including herbicides), synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, bioengineering, or ionizing radiation. (1)Basically the article is saying that perfect foods must be grown naturally without any help. This implies that farmers canister use natural elements merely nothing man do. Robin Parnes emphasizes that organic food, is defined by how it cannot be made rather than how it can be made (Parnes 2). Parnes is insisting that it is much important to state what cannot be apply to ensure an authentic organic product.This is because what is NOT in a product is what makes it organic, not what IS in it.A parking area misc erstwhileption about organic foods is that they are natural. This is not true. A ccording to Parnes, Natural foods can include organic foods, but not all natural foods are organic. The essence of Parnes statement is the misconception is just that, a misconception, with the fact foods may be classified as natural but not classified as organic. Food that has been minimally processed and contains no preservatives is referred to by the food industry as natural (2). abandoned that the definition of organic food is very similar, its understandable why the two would be lumped unitedly as one.However, the main difference as stated by Laurel Vukovic, is that foods must contain at least(prenominal) 95 percent organic ingredients in order to be classified organic (50). Organic farms are not always small family farms like consumers would think. Shapin states, Earthbound Farm, a large organic producer, was once a small two-and-a- half acre raspberry-and-baby-greens farm. Like most great things, the company grew and they now have large farms in nine different counties in t he states of California, Arizona, Colorado, and eve farms in three Mexican states.When organic farming first started in 1993, the owners of Earthbound Farm were asked by Costco, their first client, to drop the term organic because they were afraid their customers would be intimidated and not want to buy the product, because the entire concept was too new.In 2004 Earthbounds farms had grown nationally with twenty-six thousand acres and is now available in supermarkets in every state of the Union (Shapin). Organic foods today have become a more common household name and consumers are flocking to buy more of it. Katherine DiMatteo states that there has been a strong 20%-a-year growth rate since 1990 (qtd. in Is Organic Food break in For You?).DiMatteo is explaining that organic farming is becoming more in demand as people look more to eating right. Parnes supports this fact by stating that agree to the Food Marketing Institute, more than half of Americans now buy organic food at lea st once a month (1). Considering that organic foods used to be very difficult to find and most people were not concerned with eating organic, this is a huge change. This supports the fact that people want to be healthier and eat better. According to Jennifer Alsever, this change is represented by organic foods replacing sugary foods and sodas in some vending machines in Chicago (8).With all the health problems affecting consumers today, people are clear-cut for more wakeless alternatives and junk food seems to be disappearing. Consumers have become awakened by their severe food choices and with all of the information on the news and tv today, telling people how rich organic produce is in vitamins and minerals, they are looking to nature for ways to improve their body and overall health. It has been be that vitamin C and certain antioxidants can help with different diseases, such as aging, cardiovascular disease, and cancer as stated in Is Organic Better For You (3).This article as well states that letting nutrient rich organic foods sit for too long in the refrigerator can actually cause the vitamins to deplete by oxidation, therefore losing the benefit. (3). So if you buy organic for the higher vitamins and nutrients, it is important to eat it as soon as possible, so that the benefit you paid a little extra for does not get wasted. Organic food not unless helps our bodies, by reducing diseases and supplying us with needed nutrients, it can also help protect the environment. When conventional farming machines pollute the earth, this affects us as well.The air we breathe is polluted, as well as the ground by chemicals and pesticides. Even those who eat organic, can still be affect by conventional farming because of the harmful effects to the environment. Pesticides that are put on plants collect in the soil of the land as well as in water nearby conventional farms. volume then drink this water and are exposed to the chemicals. In the article Is Organic Food Better For You, DiMatteo asserts that by eliminating the use of these pesticides and fertilizers in the organic production system, we are not contributing any notwithstanding to this befoulment (3).In making this comment, DiMatteo argues that the pesticides used in conventional farming is one cause to the pollution of our planet. She believes that replacing conventional farming with organic farming is one way to improve our plants health. When buying organic, the only thought which usually comes to mind is food. Yet, there are also organic fuzz products and skin products. unitary might believe that these products cannot harm or help our bodies, when in fact these are just as important, if not more important. According to Laurel Vukovic, these chemicals are absorbed through the skin and scalp can be even more harmful than those ingested, because they are notdetoxified by the liver and pass directly into the bloodstream and fat cells (48).Basically, she is stating that there i s no way to fight off the effects of toxins contracted through hair and skin products. When toxins are ingested there is a detoxification process whereas when they are applied they are directly absorbed. Therefore, it is even more important to purchase products that are organic when trying to live a complete healthy life. Organic farming is a way to not only improve our health internally but externally as well, by protecting the environment.Organic foods take us back to the way food was before the extensive corporations got involved and tainted the product. It is safer to consume foods (as well as use products) that lack the virulent chemicals and pesticides. Our society is obsessed with pushing food to last longer than nature intended and this is a big reason pesticides were developed. Unfortunately, there is a price to pay for keeping food fresh longer. This price is being paid not only by our bodies, but by our environment as well.WORKS CITED Alsever, Jennifer. No Twinkies? Ven ding Machines Go Organic. Going Green. NBCNews. com, 12 Jan 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. Ciampa, Linda.The Organic Debate Healthier or non? In-Depth Specials. CNN. com. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. Is Organic Food Better for You? Heres How to Decide If its Worth The gritty Price. Food Recipes.WebMD. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. Parnes, Robin Brett. How Organic Food Works. How Stuff Works. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. Shapin, Steven. Organic Food and tillage Has Drawbacks. The Local Food Movement. Ed. Amy Francis. Detroit Greenhaven Press, 2010. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. Vukovic, Laurel. A Shoppers Guide to Organics. Better Nutrition. Organic Directory, Sep. 2008. PDF fiile. 12. Feb 2013.