Eating Organic

Because part of my reason for moving toward adopting a vegan diet is health, I have become immersed in the search to determine if conventionally grown foods are harmful. Here is some of the information I've found.

The best known guide to choosing organically or conventionally grown produce is written and updated every year by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). You may know of the guide as the "dirty dozen" and "clean fifteen". The EWG only uses criteria about pesticides and contaminants, not other potentially harmful factors conventionally fresh produce can have, like being genetically modified. Regardless, it is a good start. You can find the EWG's annual list here.

Some of the things EWG suggests you should purchase organic this year are apples, peaches, and nectarines, spinach, kale, and collard greens. Check out the link for the entire list.

Even though some produce on the "clean fifteen" list don't contain many pesticides, it may be because that crop has been genetically modified to resists pests, and therefore doesn't need as much, or any pesticides. On their site, the EWG points out that other crops, like corn and soy, are exceedingly grown with genetic modifications. Many people aren't aware of the harms of genetically modified food, however, numerous studies have shown many harmful side effects in rats. One article, in the Egypt Independent states this:

The rodents had reproductive problems, immune system issues, accelerating aging, cholesterol, organ damage and gastrointestinal problems.

You can read the entire article, siting the multiple studies on rats here. Additionally, many countries on multiple continents have banned or restricted GMO foods. The entire list of countries and their policies can be found here. Wikipedia has a list of foods that have been genetically modified, and there are some things on the list that I would have never thought of, like sugar beets and papayas.

One interesting, albeit completely anecdotal, test was performed by a farmer. He left two ears of corn out for the squirrels. One was organic, the other was GMO. The results are astonishing, and he performed this experiment more than once. The link above is to his flicker photo stream where the results are photographically documented.

If you're not aware, as I was not at a certain point, organic foods are not allowed to be genetically modified. Ultimately, I choose to eat organic food as much as possible to avoid contaminants and genetically modified ingredients. I find my body is very sensitive to toxins, often resulting in acne, and if my system is poisoned by some of these foods, how would our planet not be poisoned in their creation? It seems to me that whatever is better for my body is probably also better for the ecosystem.

I don't want to forget to mention that eating animal products also means that we consume whatever they consumed. If cattle was fed GMO corn, we too, are eating the product of that GMO corn. If chickens are fed pesticide covered grain, when we eat their eggs, we are eating a product of that pesticide covered grain. For health purposes, that is yet another reason to eat vegan food: because we are eliminating curious steps from the ground to our mouths.